Two years ago the late Jason Richards was the story of the MSS V8 Supercar Security Challenge at the Rolex Formula One Grand Prix.
With his wife Charlotte and kids watching it was no surprise that his former team led by Kiwi Fabian Coulthard and Jason Bright wanted to make a mark here.
They both did with a dominating four races over the weekend. The fourth and final race might have been won by another Kiwi in rookie Scott McLaughlin but it was Coulthard’s weekend in the Lockwood Racing Commodore, closely followed by Bright in the Team BOC Holden.
Despite pre-race dramas when eight cars were disqualified from the penultimate race it made no difference to Coulthard and Bright who had already laid the foundations of the weekend victory.
Bright choked up afterwards as Charlotte Richards joined the team under the podium, evoking the joy and the tears when Richards scored his very last race win in V8 Supercars before ultimately being claimed by a rare cancer some eight months later.
The BJR cars still proudly carry the JR insignia and star, as they will for as long as the team races.
“I had my first pole position, first race win and first round win and there’s no better person to dedicate it to than JR,” Coulthard said.
“He is a good close friend and family member of BJR. After his success here a couple of years ago it could not have been better. Charlotte and the kids were here, it’s a pretty emotional time.
“JR had massive success at BJR and massive success here. We all miss him. He is one of those blokes that will never be forgotten and it’s unfortunate what has happened. What else can we say? I am sure he is looking at us, high fiving the both of us.”
Coulthard started from the first row for the fourth race in a row but was happy not to push too hard, settling for third in the final race.
“You still give it a good shot but it was about minimising the risk. It’s not about winning which would have been nice but it’s about the bigger picture,” he said.
“I always knew I had the ability to do it but to beat all these guys on the same day it’s awesome for your confidence.”
The pre-race dramas meant Pepsi Max Crew FPRs Will Davison ultimatelty finished third. The biggest loser from the race three disqualifications was Red Bull Racing Australia’s Craig Lowndes who was most in contention for at least a podium.
The final race of the weekend was thrown into chaos following an accidental breach of the technical rules by eight cars from yesterday’s third race.
The cars of Jamie Whincup, Lowndes, Shane van Gisbergen, Jonathon Webb, Scott Pye, Dean Fiore, Todd Kelly and Michael Caruso were all been excluded from the third race, forcing a revamp of the grid for race four.
The breaches were inadvertent and involved an accidental setting of the ignition timing which breached the rules. It was picked up by V8 Supercar technical staff following the third race.
“The weekend was going pretty much superbly until that news and it’s a real shame. It’s obviously a penalty that has to be applied, they’re the rules and unfortunately there’s been an oversight on two of our cars, which has caused us to be in breach of those rules,” Nissan Motorsport team owner Todd Kelly said.
“It’s hard to be too tough on anybody here for that because of the hours the boys have been doing and the time we’ve spent on the dyno and trying to turn all the engines away for this weekend you could easily see how that oversight could have crept in.
“The actual breach is of no real significance whatsoever performance wise, but it is a breach of the rules , so I respect the action that they’ve taken, it’s just a shame that it’s happened, so we’ll definitely be tightening up our procedures in the future to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
In another overnight development a post-race confrontation has cost James Moffatt a $5000 fine.
Moffatt was upset by an on-track incident with Scott Pye during yesterday’s third race of the weekend, ending in a confrontation in the Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport Garage.
Following an animated discussion Moffatt shoved Pye and then left the garage when he was also confronted by a LDM team member.
While V8 Supercars openly encourages drivers to show their emotion and passion, the rules clearly state that physical contact is not allowed.
It states: “A person must not intentionally make physical contact, which includes any type of assault with another person, except in self defence.”
Moffatt was surprised by the decision and preferred not to comment, only saying that the contact was mild and not worthy of a discussion.
Of the $5000 fine $2000 was suspended until the end of the year.
