BAIRD ADMITS EREBUS PENALTY ERROR

Craig Baird admits Erebus penalty error – Photo: LAT

Supercars Driving Standards Observer Craig Baird has admitted he made a mistake in penalising an Erebus Motorsport driver at Winton last weekend.

By BRUCE NEWTON

But he’s not referring to the time penalty you might be thinking about – the 15 seconds Anton de Pasquale copped for shovelling his way past Rick Kelly in Sunday race.

No, it’s the five seconds Baird handed out to De Pasquale’s Penrite Racing teammate David Reynolds for that bump-and-run on James Courtney for the lead of Saturday’s race.

Having further reviewed the incident later, Baird has admitted that he should have penalised Reynolds 15 seconds as well.

“The five second thing is only a one-on-one redress and I clearly got the Dave Reynolds and Courtney’s one wrong,” Baird told AUTO ACTION. “The vision I got I didn’t stick with it long enough.

“I watched the bump-and-run and it was one spot. But it ended up he (Courtney) lost another couple of positions on the run down to the next corner. So David’s penalty should have been 15 seconds.

“I can never get it 100 per cent right, I am not saying I ever can.”

If Reynolds had taken 10 seconds longer to finish the race, he would have dropped from third – and his first ever podium in a Supercars race at Winton – to sixth.

It also would have elevated Courtney to third, handing the team now known as Walkinshaw Andretti United its first podium of a difficult season in its 800th race since being established as Holden Racing team in 1990.

Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup would have climbed to fourth and fifth respectively.

On the De Pasquale incident, Baird was unfazed, despite strong criticism from Erebus team boss Barry Ryan.

“If they want to promote passing, that was a pass,” Ryan said. “He didn’t lock the brakes, he wasn’t out of control.

“They were side-by-side, he got on the kerb to get out of the way and Rick decided to hang around the outside.

“We’ve been told if they want to hang around the outside, it’s their demise.”

But Baird was having none of it.

“It’s fairly simple: one car passed another car, hit it on the way through, bent it’s steering, put if off the track and he lost four positions.

“The point of contact was side-by-side, but he (De Pasquale) wasn’t making the corner. He went straight through the corner, past the apex and escorted Kelly all the way to the outside of the track.

“His defence was ‘I wouldn’t have hit him if he didn’t turn’. Well, you know what? There is a left-hand corner there.”

Baird backed up his position by supplying two photos of the incident to support his view. They are reproduced here with his explanations of their significance.

Baird verdict: “On the entry to the corner, it’s very clear Rick gives him a lot of room, way over a car width. Anton chooses to jump over the kerb himself.”

Baird handed out four time penalties for infractions during Sundays’ race and four on Saturday, including for the Reynolds/Courtney tangle and the opening lap clash between Shell V-Power Racing teammates Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin.

Baird verdict: “Anton’s clearly not rotating around the corner, he’s now understeering across the bows of Rick, which causes the contact, which bends Rick steering and causes Rick to lose that position, plus three more.”

This was a trend that would continue now that the Hawk-Eye vision collation system first rolled out in late 2018 was fully up and running.

“Hawk-Eye is absolutely a big part of the process,” Baird said. “The thing with Hawk-Eye is, it gives me confidence. I had five views of Anton’s crash and he had one with blinkers on.”

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