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Edition

Australia

Erebus boss calls for Winterbottom ban

Erebus CEO Barry Ryan says Mark Winterbottom should be stripped of his licence for his role in Will Brown's frightening crash at Pukekohe.

Screen Shot 2022-09-11 at 10.00.03 am

Winterbottom and Brown clashed on the opening lap of Race 2 in New Zealand, the contact sending Brown off the road at speed.

Brown then collided with the wall at pit entry which destroyed his Commodore and left the driver badly winded.

Winterbottom was slapped with a drive-through penalty for the contact and was filmed by TV crews involved in a heated exchange in the Erebus garage with both Ryan and Brown after the race.

Winterbottom and Brown both offered their views of the incident on TV as well, Brown suggesting it was retribution for contact at the hairpin.

Winterbottom, meanwhile, claimed the contact was unintentional, although did reference contact with Brown earlier in the lap.

Ryan claims that's an admission of the contact being intentional and says the veteran should be stripped of his licence.

"He should lose his licence. Crystal clear he did it on purpose," he said.

"He said on the coverage that Will got him in the door at the hairpin, so he all but said it was retaliation. Retaliation in the fastest and most dangerous corner on our calendar.

"Drivers that do things like that should have their licences taken off them. To deserve a drive-through... they don't give drive-throughs anymore, they use 15-second penalties.

"[Race control] saw straight away it was dangerous. And there's probably more to come now they've got the footage from inside the car.

"In our opinion, we've seen all the footage, and he said he was basically retaliating for what Will did.

"He didn't apologise on TV and then he came down here and half-arsed tried to apologise.

"Like Will said, an 80 km/h hairpin, nobody is going to get hurt. One hundred and eighty km/h through a fast sweeper, someone is going to get hurt.

"With the damage it's done to us... Will, luckily he's not hurt. The car is fucked. The wildcard project is fucked. All because some driver decided to retaliate for a little bump at the hairpin."

The crash has plunged the Erebus Bathurst 1000 wildcard into doubt, with the spare chassis that was going to be raced by Greg Murphy and Richie Stanaway now destined to be raced by Brown and Jack Perkins.

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Edition

Australia