R5 PENALTIES - Lowndes cleared, then fined
24/5/2000 15:24 (Press Release) - Plenty of biff and barge from the Supercars at Hidden Valley last weekend kept stewards busy. Round 5 of the 2000 Shell Championship Series saw the following penalties imposed:
FRIDAY:
**The inquiry regarding an incident involving Craig Lowndes and Craig Baird in Race 3 of Round 4 at Eastern Creek on 30 April 2000 viewed video footage of the incident and analysis of data downloads from the event. It was decided that there was inadequate evidence to support any breach of the rules by either driver.
SATURDAY PRACTICE/QUALIFYING:
**Cameron McLean driver of car 40, failed to attend the driver’s briefing, breaching rule 11.9.1 and was fined $500.
**Steven Ellery, driver of car 31, was warned after spinning the car during the meeting ride session with a passenger on board. Potentially he could have breached two rules, bringing the sport into disrepute (11.6.4) and also careless driving (11.8.2), however a warning was the only penalty given.
**Entrants of cars 7 & 12 (K-Mart Racing) and car 13 (Wynns Racing) were found to have breached CAMS Bulletin B00/34, by not removing the strakes from the undertray of their cars. The teams argued that the word “undertray”, in plain English, did not include strakes. A breach was established, however due to the problems with the interpretation of the bulletin, no penalty was applied on the condition that the strakes be shortened to extent required, before the vehicles were allowed onto the circuit.
**Drivers of cars 14 (Mike Imrie), car 50 (Michael Donaher) and car 11 (Larry Perkins) were all found guilty of exceeding the pit lane speed limit and were fined $200 each. Mike Imrie was fined a further $300 for exceeding the speed limit on a second occasion.
SUNDAY RACES:
**Paul Weel, driver of car 43, faced two different inquiries resulting from Race 1. The first incident involved car 43 spinning and then rejoining the circuit between traffic. It was found that the evidence did not support a breach of the rules in relation to this issue. The second inquiry involved an incident with Paul Weel and Paul Romano (car 24), where car 43 made contact with the rear of car 24. It was found that Paul Weel had breached rule 11.8.2 (careless driving) and a fine of $2000 was imposed.
**An inquiry was conducted into an incident at the start of Race 1 between drivers of car 29 (Paul Morris) and car 50 (Michael Donaher). The evidence received did not warrant any further action.
**An inquiry was held into an incident involving Steven Richards, driver of car 7, when he left the circuit and rejoined further ahead in the field, after taking to the grass. It was found that his action was in response to several surrounding incidents, as such no penalty was warranted.
**An incident between Michael Donaher, car 50 and Rodney Forbes, car 13 after the two had contact in Race 2 resulted in damage to both cars. The evidence reviewed by the stewards warranted no further action.
**An inquiry was held into an incident between Steven Richards and Mike Imrie, car 14, in Race 2 where both cars made contact while turning into the corner after the hairpin, resulting in both cars spinning and suffering damage. No penalties were issued.
**Craig Lowndes was found to have exceeded the pit lane speed limit during Race 2 and was fined $200.
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