SUPERCARS driving standards advisor Craig Baird has explained why only Chaz Mostert copped a penalty amid his battle with Broc Feeney during the Sunday race at the VAILO Adelaide 500.
Mostert and Feeney were squabbling over third place in the early stages of the race, culminating in the pair trading places twice on lap 11.
Feeney shot down the inside of Mostert at Turn 6, with TV footage suggesting the Chevrolet pilot had bumped the Ford on the exit of the previous corner to help set up the pass.
Mostert retaliated at the very next corner, shoving Feeney wide and retaking the place.
It was the latter incident that drew a five-second time penalty, served at his first pitstop, and took Mostert out of the battle for the podium positions.
Baird told the latest Race Control episode of the V8 Sleuth Podcast that he also looked closely at Feeney’s initial pass before determining that no contact had taken place.
“We went back to turns 4/5/6 to see if there was contact the other way around,” Baird explained on Race Control.
“It really did look like it. I initially thought Broc had got in the back of Chaz, but he had just sort of flared it up (spun the tyres) a little bit.
“Broc did a very (Craig) Lowndes-esque pass there; he didn’t bump him, he just fired straight from left to right and was committed to that.
“I think Chaz maybe thought that there was a little bit of a rub-up there, so he returned serve.”
Part of the information at Baird’s disposal included telemetry data from Mostert’s car, synchronised with every available angle of broadcast footage of the apparent bump from Feeney.
“That’s the key. You start getting the telemetry and the frame-by-frame shots from every angle, it’s very hard to get it wrong,” Baird explained.
“This is what people don’t understand at home: I know whether Broc Feeney touched the back of Chaz.
“I can see, even on data, I can see it on a damper pot, I can see on a G-sensor whether there’s any movement, I can see the wheelspin on Chaz… you take all this in, then you frame-by-frame it, you (can) make a very educated decision whether someone’s to be penalised.”
Listen to the full episode in the player below.
