Supercars Wanneroo

Why Erebus lodged an unwinnable protest

Barry Ryan says the $4000 fee to protest the Race 1 result in Perth was money well spent – even if he knew Erebus would lose.

Andrew van Leeuwen

Edited: May 1, 2023, 6:17 AM

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Erebus and Shane van Gisbergen butted heads both on and off the track in Perth over the weekend, the Kiwi's forceful race-winning pass on Brodie Kostecki on Saturday evening prompting a formal protest.

Erebus argued that van Gisbergen had made contact with a hard-defending Kostecki – who had just been issued a bad sportsmanship flag for blocking – to execute the pass.

The matter was heard by Motorsport Australia stewards on Sunday morning before being dismissed.

Reflecting on the outcome, Erebus CEO Ryan said there was no surprise from his end that the protest didn't lead to a penalty.

Instead he admitted that he knew he was fighting a losing battle heading into the stewards room – but saw the protest, which cost the team $4000, as a means to clarify what it and isn't allowed.

"I knew we weren't going to win, because they are all Shane van Gisbergen fans," Ryan told Motorsport.com.

"I just wanted to make a point of it. Where are you going to draw the line? It cost $4000 to do it, but at least we know where the line is.

"If it means we can get a race win doing what he did, and that's accepted, well it's worth the $4000, isn't it?

"That's all I wanted to do. I wanted to see Shane in front of the stewards, because I haven't seen him in front of the stewards for a long time. He does that kind of move all the time, and everyone lets him get away with it.

"We know where the line is now. Brodie asked a lot of questions in there, so he knows exactly where the line is. It's good."

The stewards report explained that van Gisbergen had escaped penalty because the contact between the pair came after he had created an overlap on Kostecki.

That in itself is no great departure from what has and hasn't been allowed in the past.

Kostecki, meanwhile, appeared less concerned over the outcome of the protest, and more irritated that he had been issued a bad sportsmanship flag for his defence during the heated battle with van Gisbergen.

“To be honest, the whole deal was confusing for me with the bad sportsmanship flag and whatnot,” said Kostecki.

“I was just confused on how the whole deal sort of transpired and how I ended up with a bad sportsmanship flag.

“Shane was racing me hard and rubbing me and pushing me in my rear bar, and that’s sort of against the rules.

“But to be honest, I don’t really care about the whole sort of deal, but it’s just weird that I got a flag, and supposedly a warning, but it is in the rules.

“So, the [bad sportsmanship flag is] pretty sort of stupid in my opinion and I’d hope that we can sort of change it in the future because the crowd and the fans deserve to see good racing, and right now it’s not the case.

“It was really good racing out there and I got a flag for it. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was pretty sort of frustrated when I came back in.”

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