AN unusual error has seen Motorsport Australia reissue results from last month’s Gold Coast 500 which have impacted the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Pro-Am title race.
It was belatedly detected that the Pro-Am cars of Sam Shahin, Rodney Jane and Tim Miles were classified in Race 2 when they should have been regarded as non-finishers.
That race had reached an abrupt end following a dramatic pile-up triggered by contact between David Wall and Alex Davison.
Shahin, Jane and Miles were all in the pits and out of the race at the point of the red flag being activated, but became automatically classified – incorrectly – based on having completed 75 percent of the adjusted race distance.
New Motorsport Australia CEO Sunil Vohra has stepped in to rectify the matter, using the National Competition Rules 96 regulation.
“In accordance with the Motorsport Australia Circuit Race Standing Regulations Articles 5.12.3 and 5.12.3, which stipulate that an automobile must have crossed the Finish Line on the Track under its own power during a suspended race, all three cars will now be removed from the final classification,” confirmed a statement.
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Shahin is most affected, given he was due to enter this weekend’s Adelaide decider just 15 points shy of Pro-Am leader Adrian Flack.
A DNF in Race 2 at the Gold Coast drops him to third, behind Dean Cook, and now 51 points adrift of Flack.
Motorsport Australia has confirmed to V8 Sleuth that a protest of the results change has been received from an unnamed competitor.
A stewards hearing is to be held on the matter in the coming days.
Interestingly, NCR 96 gives the Motorsport Australia CEO power to change a pointscore, but not explicitly a finalised results classification. NCR 96’s most common use is to facilitate a correction to the pointscore where it was calculated incorrectly in the first instance.
In the Pro standings, Jackson Walls leads Callum Hedge by 21 points.
