Protest dismissed

A protest lodged by Prodrive Racing Australia against Craig Lowndes was dismissed by the CAMS Stewards at Sandown Raceway today.

Lowndes and Championship leader Mark Winterbottom came together at the last round at Sydney Motorsport Park and while it was deemed a racing incident at the time, Prodrive challenged DSO Jason Bargwanna's decision.

The protest meant a hearing with CAMS stewards, which stretched on over an hour while both sides - Winterbottom and Prodrive team manager Chris O'Toole, and Lowndes and Red Bull boss Roland Dane - presented evidence.

But ultimately the stewards could not rule without doubt that Lowndes demonstrated careless driving.

Lowndes was relaxed earlier today when speaking to v8supercars.com.au, and was pleased not to be handed a points penalty.

"We move on now and get on to the weekend, like we were always going to," Lowndes said.

"The stewards heard all the evidence and heard both sides, Jason Bargwanna was in it and gave his point of view and made their own independent view that there was no breach of the rules, so we move on now, it was good."

Lowndes explained the lengthy process.

"It always was going to be [lengthy]- to hear why they protested, and go through the same sort of procedure again.

"We went into the vision, the stewards listened to what we had to give as evidence before we went into the vision of the three cars, and then they took their own independent view of what was their protest, so it was lengthy."

While he is fighting Winterbottom for the championship lead, 255 points adrift in third, the hearing was not a distraction for Lowndes, who is focused on tackling this weekend with co-driverSteven Richards.

"No I actually forgot all about it! We were running around doibg other stuff. We knew it was going to be part of the weekend, just now happy it's all over ... the decision has been made now so we can not think about it get on with it and get on with racing."

Lowndes' Red Bull team has a strong record at Sandown, having won the last three consecutive 500s with teammates Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell first last year.

The drivers will get behind the wheel of their V8 Supercars tomorrow at 10.10am for the first practice session of the Wilson Security Sandown 500.