Oliphant still fuming at penalty
HMO Customer Racing’s Tom Oliphant doubled down on his frustration at an “infuriating” penalty at the last TCR Australia round at Queensland Raceway.
In his first trip to the “Paperclip” Oliphant had strong pace and took a breakthrough pole position.
Come race 2, the Brit started seventh for the reverse grid affair and found himself three wide with Aaron Cameron and Ben Bargwanna though Turn 3.
Oliphant tried to pounce on the inside and climbed the kerb, which saw him strike Bargwanna.
The #71 Peugeot then bounced into Cameron on the outside and the GRM driver was pinballed to the infield.
Oliphant received a drive-through penalty for the clash and finished 11th, ahead of both Bargwanna and Cameron.
In the final race the #15 was full of motivation and ended up coming half a second shy of third place.
Oliphant believes he was the fastest car all weekend, but feels the penalty cost him any hope of silverware and is furious to receive little explanation.
“Starting with the positives, we had the fastest car throughout and it was one of my best weekends in TCR Australia so far,” he said.
“Sadly for all that great pace, it’s infuriating to come away from the weekend with no silverware to show for it due to an overzealous drive-through penalty.
“Without it, I’d have been starting second on the grid for race three and it’s clear a potential podium or win was there for the taking.
“I’m firm in my belief that it was a fair touring car move in race two, but they made the strange decision to penalise me in-race and then no-one had the respect to give their reasoning for it.
“The stewards and driving standards advisor refused to see me, which left a bad taste in my mouth.
“We’ve got a break now until the next round, so there’s time to try and get some answers, then let the dust settle and go again at Sydney.”
The dust will settle as TCR is currently in an 11-week break before the penultimate round at SMP on October 18-20.
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