THE key parties from a controversial Sandown Super2 incident have had their say on the matter, expressing contrasting views.
Aaron Love was on course for his maiden Super2 race win in Race 2 of Round 4 before becoming under attack from Walkinshaw Andretti United rising star Ryan Wood.
Wood nudged Love wide at the final corner on Lap 15, swiftly redressing – although that process did allow Tickford Racing’s Brad Vaughan to make up ground and join a full-blown three-pronged battle for the lead.
The trio scrapped it out through the next few corners before finding themselves running three-wide down Sandown’s back straight. As they veered through the right-hand kink, Love lost out, contact spinning him into the fence at high-speed.
Cooper Murray swooped to hit the front, while Vaughan and Wood pressed on to finish second and third respectively.
Although the incident went unpunished on the basis of no driver being wholly or predominantly to blame, Love’s Blanchard Racing Team boss was less than impressed.
“It was a disappointing way to end. There was definitely I think some frustration from the driver in second: three incidents in half a lap, it’s not good enough,” Tim Blanchard told V8 Sleuth.
Naturally, Wood was of a different opinion.
“It got pretty hectic there,” the Kiwi teenager explained.
“I redressed and it was all good into (Turn) 1 and all came out clean and then I got past Aaron and Brad bombed me at (Turn) 4 and that’s when we went three-wide.
“It was basically inevitable what happens, so unfortunately for Aaron that was him spinning in front of us.
“Obviously that’s not the way you want anybody to end up, their race going like that.
“It was probably one of those things where everybody is hot under the collar and those two aren’t really racing for a championship so they were kind of throwing moves and throwing blocks like that so it is what it is. It’s part of racing.”
He also clarified that the decision to redress was his own, and not a team directive.
“It was definitely mine. I knew that obviously once we made a little bit of contact and saw that he got out of shape, I was like ‘that’s on me’ and obviously redressed,” said Wood.
“What unfolded wasn’t through the redressing because we got through Turn 1 fine and everything was sorted out but what followed was pretty unfortunate and not nice to see for anybody.”
Two Super2 rounds remain this year, with series leader Zak Best now just 33 points ahead of Kai Allen. Wood is a further 42 points adrift in third.
V8 Sleuth’s ongoing coverage of the Dunlop Series for Super2 and Super3 is proudly presented by Biante – Fuel your passion with winning model cars. Visit Biante here to check out their range of model cars in a range of scales from 1:64 to 1:10.
