Holdsworth responds to blue flag penalty

Lee Holdsworth is adamant he had no intention to hold up the leaders at the end of Race 20.

Holdsworth was penalised in the closing stages of the NTI Townsville 500 finale for disobeying blue flags.

The Penrite Racing driver was a lap down when he caught Chaz Mostert, Cam Waters and James Courtney.

Holdsworth was on fresher tyres and passed Waters into Turn 13 with 12 laps to go.

Waters regained track position, and Holdsworth ran between the Monster Ford and Courtney.

Holdsworth was first given a bad sportsmanship flag for disobeying blue flags.

One lap later, he was pinged with a drive-through penalty, and was classified 23rd.

Holdsworth said he had better tyres than those around him, and believes Waters should have let him go.

Waters would later lament being caught up in the battles, particularly the one with Mostert, in the wake of the leaders’ final-corner clash.

“I had 10-lap fresher tyres than those guys,” Holdsworth told Supercars.com.

“I tried to unlap myself. I had a clear pace advantage on them.

“I got past Cam, then he decided to bomb me back.

“If he had have let me go, he’d have seen me go off into the distance.

“It definitely wasn’t my intention to hold them up, or anything like that.

“But my race was over anyway before that all happened."

Holdsworth heads Courtney

Holdsworth’s penalty was a footnote on a tough weekend for Penrite Racing.

Neither Holdsworth or Reynolds finished either race in the top 10.

Reynolds dropped from fifth to seventh overall; Holdsworth is now 13th.

The latter is hoping the team can fightback in Tailem Bend, where it scored a pole and win last May.

“I didn’t have any highlights; we scratched our heads for a lot of the weekend,” he said.

“We did a lot of changes across both cars and never found a clear direction.

“We’ve got a bit of work to do before Tailem Bend, but I;m sure we’ll come back swinging."

The 2022 season will resume at the OTR SuperSprint on July 30-31. Purchase your tickets now.