Feeney rues yellow flag scramble, Kostecki defends officials
Broc Feeney rues yellow flag incident, Brodie Kostecki defends officials
Safety Car boards, yellow flags withdrawn in early corners after start incident
Feeney dropped from ninth to 12th in scramble, recovered to 10th
Broc Feeney has rued being delayed by waved yellows in the confusing start to the ITM Christchurch Super 440 opener, which caught out the Triple Eight star.
David Reynolds, Cameron Hill and Macauley Jones were involved in a crash off the start-line, with Safety Car boards and flags displayed at marshal points in the first sector.
The flags scrambled the field; Feeney maintained ninth off the line, but appeared to side-step for his rivals, dropping to 12th through the subsequent corners.
Feeney recovered to 10th by the chequered flag. Teammate Will Brown, meanwhile, sustained rear damage and was delayed in pit lane, dropping from fifth to 17th.
"It was a bit of chaos at the start, we've come out of Turn 2 there, and through that kink there was a Safety Car board and a yellow flag, and I was like, 'Did I just see that?'" Feeney said on the broadcast.
"And then we headed down to the hairpin, and there was another Safety Car board and yellow flag.
"Anyway, I propped up and a few guys passed me, and then everyone stopped out of the hairpin. My radio was latched on, but they've been really average at the moment, so I couldn't talk to my team.
"I lost four or five spots there, so it's pretty disappointing. Obviously you've gotta go off the flag point, so I slowed down, tried to hold position and got passed by a few cars.
"It'll be interesting to see what happens, obviously it's pretty disappointing. We're racing at a high level and things slip up like that, but we'll see what comes from it.
"Obviously a few things didn't go our way today, but we'll reset, we've got three more races to go."
Speaking in the post-race press conference, championship leader Brodie Kostecki — who raced to second behind winner Kai Allen — defended officials over the incident, despite admitting the outcome could have been worse.
"I didn't hear anything, I just saw [yellow] flags and Safety Car boards, and that's what we have to oblige to," said Kostecki, who was first on the scene.
"I did, and apparently it wasn't a Safety Car. We just got back to another marshal post and there were no flags out, and we got back racing again.
"It was a pretty awkward situation, and probably very lucky we didn't end up with cars getting damaged from an error there, a miscommunication. Motorsport Australia and MotorSport New Zealand do a great job, and it's very unlike them to make a mistake.
"They do happen. It's really humans behind the wheel of the operation. Not sure what happened, but glad everyone seemed to get through unscathed and we were able to jog on."
Third-place finisher Ryan Wood added: "As soon as we came out of Turn 1, there were Safety Car boards and flags, I don't know what happened there. Like Brodie said, that could've been probably a really, really bad accident if people weren't aware. We're just glad that didn't happen.
"After seeing the race start, I understand why they were out, but at the same time, I'm sure Motorsport Australia and MotorSport New Zealand will look into that and make sure everyone's amongst it for the rest of the weekend."
Supercars return to Ruapuna on Saturday morning for back-to-back Boost Mobile Qualifying sessions, beginning at 10:05am NZST/8:05am AEST.
