Walkinshaw Andretti United has announced it is appealing the disqualification of Chaz Mostert from Saturday’s Supercars Championship race.
The reigning Bathurst 1000 champion finished the race in fourth position however failed a post-race investigation and was subsequentially disqualified.
On Friday Mostert was disqualified from practice for running on tyres under the new minimum tyre pressure of 20 psi, however this race disqualification had nothing to do with tyres.
Following a hearing after the race, Mostert was disqualified for having a battery-operated air blower inserted into the front bumper of the #25 machine on the grid prior to the start of Race 16.
Stewards found this to be a breach of rule D8.1.8 which reads as follows.
“Rule D8.1.8 prohibits the use of any device to artificially vary the temperature of any part of the Car when it is on the Grid with the exception of Driver cooling”.
The device was activated on the grid and blew air into the radiator of the car to keep it cool in the blazing Darwin sun.
Stewards’ stated that the authorised team representative did not dispute this.
“Did not dispute that the device had the effect of lowering the temperature of the engine cooling system on Car 25 from the temperature build-up achieved on the reconnaissance Lap,” the steward statement read.
“The Competitor is reminded that Decisions and Penalties that may be subject to Appeal are set out in B7.7.2 and the Rights to and process for an Appeal are set out in B5”.
The team has taken this up, confirming they will appeal the decision, and also stated that they will not talk further on the subject.
“Walkinshaw Andretti United has lodged a notice to appeal tonight’s decision to disqualify car 25 from Race 16,” a team spokesperson said.
“The Team will not be making any further comment at this stage.”
As it stands Mostert has been stripped of his 80 points for finishing fourth behind Anton De Pasquale, Will Davison and Shane van Gisbergen
The disqualification has also dropped Mostert to sixth in the standings behind David Reynolds.
Andre Heimgartner has been promoted to fourth and Mark Winterbottom to fifth.
The Supercars action commences on Sunday at 9.05am AEST for not one, but two qualifying sessions.
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