10 years after Brocky died....This is a special weekend....I'm excited....Lap times are being broken......2min 04sec could be possible this year.
Just watched Qually and the Shootout, very fast times and barely anything between them. I'll try and watch a bit tonight but will catch up with the full race in the morning. Hard to believe I was there 2 years ago, seems like yesterday
3 years on the trot Whincup has screwed a potential Race Win, that string of 2:06s though...awesome stuff!
Finally watched the race, and an amazing one as usual. I agree with green serpent, Whincup was robbed (and I'm not a fan of him by any stretch). To McLaughlin point : Whincup was alongside, the move was definitely on. Then Whincup tried to redress, which is in the rules (and with Bargwanna, you don't want him to call on penalties, as incompetent as he is...), he definitely kept his line. Finally, Tander came on the scene, and did what Tander usually does : push everyone, cause mayhem, then complain, and gets away with the mayhem he causes.
Thing is though if Whincup thought the pass was "fair" why did he slow down to redress? All he's done since the incident is claim he thought it was a fair pass at the time, so you have to question why he didn't await the Stewards decision as they tell teams when a driver needs to redress or not. The fact that he did this straight away suggests to me that he knew he was out of control and slid into Scotty, now post-event he claims he was in full control (hard for us to judge really), either way it doesn't add up for me, he should've kept going full throttle to the final turn. 3 years running he's screwed a potential win.
Seemed pretty clear watching it live he was slowing to redress before Tander passed McLaughlin, so that he wouldn't lose a place overall. The silly thing was that he didn't get penalised for that, which led to the argument (and aborted appeal) about the passing move itself, which was nothing compared to the brain fade that followed it. Tander had no reason to slow, he had McLaughlin covered and should have been fighting Whincup (if no call to redress eventuated) or jumped both of them otherwise. No one is going to slow and say oh, excuse me chaps, I see you two have had an incident, I'll sit back here until you sort it out then resume trying to pass you.
Whincup said the move was on, not that it was a fair pass. It's on when you're alongside, and he was. He made a mistake, so he slew down to redress, it's pretty simple. And Tander had no reason to slow ? Seeing that he had to push Whincup and then clipped McLaughlin trying to create space, there was clearly no room for him to pass. That's a reason to slow down. Tander proved me right in the stupidest way in the Coulthard incident in race 1 at Gold Coast. Of course for once he was penalized, if he wasn't, Bargwanna wasn't leaving the track alive
nah Scottys re-entry was totally out of order (and I'm a Scotty fan) as he whacked into Tander not Tander clipping him, Whincup could've readressed (!) on the front straight anyway, either way I think deep down he knows he did wrong and everything after is the usual cover up story with him - "didn't hear the radio calls" when he ran out of fuel 2 years ago....yeah whatever! Just watched GC Race 1 last night, Tander should be banned for a race as he couldv'e killed Fabs, but he gives no f**ks as he's drive less next year anyway!
Racing line's on the left, cars rejoin that way after the chase all the time. If someone isn't slowing down in front it's not an issue.
He entered the track way too fast and slid across into Tander mid track, hence he was fined heavily post race (Or points can't remember exactly but he got punished) for the incident, knowing there's other cars in the vicinity he has to slow down and re enter at a safe speed starting to the right of the track. Obviously he didn't want to lose a place so carried his speed back onto the track, as we all probably would when you're a few laps away from potentially winning the biggest race of the year Edit, just to confirm it was a points penalty.
I'm not saying he wasn't at fault at all, I'm just saying if you look at the incident from the heli view, focusing on each driver one at a time, the driver most at fault was Whincup. Tander literally nearly ran into him halfway around the right hander after the chase, because he suddenly backed off in the hope of redressing immediately (before Tander could get past). Yeah, McLaughlin entered too fast, and was actually left of centre when contact was made, but if Whincup hadn't slowed both those cars would have been past before McLaughlin got back on the black stuff. And to make it worse Whincup's engineer tried to say he didn't know Tander was there - like he hadn't looked in his mirror in the last, oh, 10 minutes. And that's what I meant above by "Tander had no reason to slow". Of course he had to slow when Whincup did, and he did, and he probably pushed his luck a little in trying to move right when he did, though that wasn't helped by McLaughlin coming on too fast. But whatever went on between Whincup and McLaughlin, and whether Whincup was going to need to redress or not, shouldn't have any bearing on Tander's race. Once McLaughlin went off Tander had that place, and if Whincup had to redress then Tander should have had another place too. So while he did push his luck, he had every right to expect to stay up to speed.
Well said Lazza. It was a crazy ending. I can't find it anywhere else but facebook. Larkens explains the incident perfectly. https://www.facebook.com/TENsportTV/videos/776559702447565/?pnref=story
oh yeah with Whincup he slowed that's obvious, that's what I meant by he knew he did wrong even though afterwards he claims it was a fair pass. Seems we're agreeing in different ways That heli cam is the best shot, you also see Scotty to a little wiggle into Tander as though the grass/dirt on his tires affected grip
