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DJR Team Penske responds to Bathurst engine penalty

DJR Team Penske has responded to the raft of penalties handed down by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport due to an engine breach at the Bathurst 1000.

Andrew van Leeuwen

Published: Nov 10, 2019, 1:01 AM

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Scott McLaughlin, DJR Team Penske Ford

Post-weekend technical checks have revealed that the engine Scott McLaughlin used to take pole for the Great Race, with a record-breaking Shootout time, exceeded the valve lift allowed by the regulations.

McLaughlin has been stripped of his Bathurst pole, relegated to the back of the grid for the Sandown 500, and the team has been fined $30,000.

The team has now responded to the breach, apologising to race winners McLaughlin and Premat and reiterating that stewards found no evidence that there'd been a performance advantage.

"The engines used for the Bathurst 1000 race, in both car #17 and car #12, have passed all post-race inspections," read a DJRTP statement.

"The engine in question experienced a mechanical problem during practice and qualifying. Following the Top 10 Shootout, we were granted permission by the Head of Motorsport to change the engine prior to the race.

"We are confident that the build sheet for this engine indicated that it left our engine provider with measurements that were well under the allowable maximum valve lift stated within the Virgin Australia Supercars Engine Specification Document. It was also confirmed by Supercars that the control camshaft, rockers and all other components and measurements used in the engine were the ones permitted within our Engine Specifications Document.

"The steward’s report confirmed that there was clearly no intent from our team to circumvent the rules and there was no evidence that we benefited from any performance advantage as the engine passed the Supercars power tests on their dynamometer post-event, returning results that did not exceed the Accumulated Power Number nor the Engine Power Weighted Average Number.

"As the lift now measures a few thousandths of an inch high on a few valves, we can only conclude that either the engine wasn’t measured properly when it was initially assembled or the damage that occurred in the engine contributed to a change to the maximum valve lift in the forward cylinders.

"We apologize to Scott, Alex, our partners and our supporters, and we will continue to focus on winning our second consecutive Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.

"The team will be making no further comment at this time."

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Previous article McLaughlin stripped of Bathurst pole for engine breach

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