V8 Supercars: Two reds don’t make a right, says Jamie Whincup in Auckland safety car drama

Race stewards officiating in Auckland have come under fire for not being “with it” after Holden’s Jamie Whincup’s chances were ruined following a controversial safety car deployment.

Roland Dane of Triple Eight engineering congratulates Jamie Whincup after claiming pole for race 2. Picture: Getty Images

Holden star Jamie Whincup has said race stewards are drinking “red each night” and were asleep after a safety car debacle cruelled his chances of victory at Pukekohe.

The seven-time Supercars champion was fuming post-race after being hit with a drive-through penalty for illegally passing the safety car, believing it had been wrongly deployed in front of him.

After starting the race on pole, Whincup finished the race in 16th position following the penalty and safety car mix-up that dramatically changed the course of the race won by Scott McLaughlin.

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Whincup was not the only driver to suffer from the safety car dramas as Lee Holdsworth also fell victim, falling from second to 11th before the race restarted after the correct order of the field was messed up.

The Mustang driver eventually finished 15th and was also left shattered after he missed an opportunity to claim his first podium since 2014.

Whincup slammed race officials, arguing the safety car should have had the green light on to allow him to pass as he was not the correct race leader.

Jamie Whincup has attacked officials following the safety car chaos in Sunday’s 200km race in New Zealand.

“They should have had green lights on,” Whincup said.

“I’m sure somewhere in the rule book somewhere they are allowed to keep their yellow on if there is car in the wall in a dangerous position, but that wasn’t the case.

“They should have had green lights on, I wasn’t the leader of the race.

“This is our life, we are pushing hard and got people making decisions that are cruising back, having a few glasses of red each night and rock up to the track and the brain is not with it.

“They are not operating at the same level as what the teams are operating at.”

The safety car was deployed on lap 13 after a throttle issue forced David Reynold’s Holden to stop on the track.

Sunday’s race was turned upside down following the safety car incident. Picture: Getty

CAMS official David Stuart said Whincup should not have made the decision to pass the safety car while it was being determined who was the effective leader of the race.

“We need to be able to understand who is the leader of the race and get the right person so that is why the orange lights are on the safety car to give us an opportunity to sort out where the leader was positioned at the time,” Stuart said.

“The rules are clear under safety car deployment if the orange lights are on you stay behind the safety car. We would have been able to identify the leader and we would have been able to wave cars through (if Whincup had stayed behind the safety car) and have the leader at the time.

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“By car 88 going past the safety car when then lost the ability to evaluate the situation in a calm manner and needed to avoid the situation where we had half the field a lap down.”

Whincup believed he would have been forced back in the field whether he had decided to pass the safety car or not.

“It was either stay behind (the safety car) and get completely screwed like the FPR (Tickford Racing) guys or just (go past),” Whincup said.

“I gave him an opportunity to put the greens on, I stopped, waited, waited, waited but they were just all asleep … so I just went past.

“Our position wouldn’t have changed much, we would have been well back, 10-plus, we ended up 15th or 16th. We were done anyway, so it wouldn’t have made much difference.”