The paddock atmosphere at Triple Eight during the Ipswich Super440 turned warm as pit reporter Mark Larkham handed over a small object that had been the root of a major problem. Midway through Practice 2, Larkham approached Will Brown, who was sidelined in the garage due to a gearbox issue on his Red Bull Mustang.
"This is for you, I know you wanted it," Larkham said, handing over the 49mm restrictor inscribed '49 millimetres, do not use'. "Put that on your mantelpiece mate, park it behind you."
Brown, known for his jovial nature, accepted the unusual gift with a wide grin. "I'm going to frame it," he said. "I said I wanted this after I found out. It's going in the pool room and I'm keeping this one. Unfortunately we've shit a gearbox."
Earlier in the day, Triple Eight boss Jamie Whincup faced the media for the first time since the restrictor issue was discovered. The team had heavily scrutinised Brown's performances during the first half of the season, unaware he was carrying an inherent disadvantage.
Whincup acknowledged that the team takes responsibility, having "assumed" the part supplied by Supercars was correct. "We saw it there; we were monitoring it. You'd go to a round where you had different tyres or conditions, so you didn't get a read," he explained. "Three or four rounds ago we realised 'hang on, we do have an issue'. The engineers did a great job working from the top of the list down, and the question we'll ask ourselves is 'how did the air restrictor end up towards the bottom of our list?'"
"It comes back to that: if you're given something from the governing body, you assume it's correct. When the ball gets thrown onto the middle of the field at the start of the game, you don't check the psi; you assume it's right. So we wrongly assumed it was correct because it was handed to us from the governing body, but the learning lesson for us is now moving forward we treat any part exactly the same and make sure it's 100 percent before going in the car," Whincup added.
Supercars stated that the undersized restrictor was supplied to Brown for a pre-season demonstration event in Geelong only, not for racing. However, this incident has opened eyes across the paddock about the importance of component verification, while also providing some light-hearted relief.
Read Also
KOVE 450 RR meluncur di Spanyol dengan mesin 4 silinder 67 hp, bobot 165 kg, dan harga 6.297 euro. Sport middleweight dengan karakter agresif dan elektronik lengkap.
Brodie Kostecki memuncaki latihan kedua di Ipswich, sementara Will Brown kembali diganggu masalah teknis. Persaingan kualifikasi diprediksi ketat.
Fendt berusia 40 tahun mendapat hadiah ulang tahun berupa debut balap Modified dengan T-Bucket Altered di Desert Nationals Alice Springs. Simak cerita persiapannya.
Continue with Google
Discussion (0)
Join the Discussion!
Sign in easily to start commenting, replying, and interacting with other readers.
Latest Comments
No comments yet. Be the first!