Van Gisbergen keeps Perth win after Erebus protest
Shane van Gisbergen has kept his Race 7 victory at the Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint after a Sunday morning hearing.
Van Gisbergen muscled past Brodie Kostecki at Turn 6 to claim the race lead on the penultimate lap.
The defending champion made contact with the right-rear of Kostecki’s #99 Coca-Cola Camaro, and moved into the lead.
It came just seconds after Kostecki was hit with a bad sportsmanship flag for blocking.
The Motorsport Australia stewards’ report later revealed that Erebus had requested an investigation into the incident.
The incident wasn’t referred to the stewards, with Erebus later confirming its intention to protest the result.
A hearing was held at CARCO.com.au Raceway on Sunday morning after qualifying.
Stewards advised after Sunday's first race, which was won by Kostecki's teammate Will Brown, that the protest had been dismissed.
The statement reads: "Following the publication of the Provisional Classifications for Race 7 the Stewards received a Notice of Protest from Erebus Motorsport regarding an incident on Lap 41 of Race 7 at turn involving Car 99, Brodie Kostecki, and Car 97, Shane van Gisbergen.
"The Stewards heard the protest earlier today and have since issued their Decision dismissing the protest."
Prior to the hearing, Erebus boss Barry Ryan said: “The grounds are pretty simple.
"We want to see the hard racing, but we don’t want to win in the stewards’ room.
“But the rule is pretty clear that you can’t get an unfair advantage when making contact with a car.
“While the rules are written like that, what Shane did was wrong. We thought we’d go to the stewards and see what their opinion is."
Kostecki will carry an extended 88-point lead over Chaz Mostert into Race 9, with van Gisbergen 96 points down.
Brown is 177 points down in fourth, with Erebus extending its teams’ championship lead to 153 points.
The Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint will conclude with Race 9 at 3:45pm local time/5:45pm AEST.
