Roland Dane lashes penalty handed to DJR Team Penske and Scott McLaughlin

On the day he sealed his second Supercars title, rivals are not happy with Scott McLaughlin and DJR Team Penske, with one calling his Bathurst 1000 penalty ‘lightweight’.

Scott McLaughlin has come under fire from rivals. Picture: AAP Images

Red Bull Holden Racing Team boss Roland Dane has lashed the latest Bathurst 1000 penalty handed to DJR Team Penske and Scott McLaughlin as “lightweight” and says the team’s victory in the Great Race this year is tainted forever.

On the day he sealed his second Supercars title, McLaughlin was handed a bombshell penalty on the eve of the Sandown 500 after stewards found DJR Team Penske guilty of an engine breach at Mount Panorama.

McLaughlin was forced to start the Sandown 500 from the back of the grid and he was also stripped of his qualifying and top-ten shootout win from Bathurst. The team was also hit with a $30,000 fine.

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But the penalties did not sit comfortably with rivals Triple Eight, with Dane saying they were too soft.

“If they do the crime, they have to serve the time,” Dane said.

“Unfortunately it is a lightweight penalty. It’s no good saying you’ve taken the pole position away from them when the race has been run.

“To be honest it was soft and those guys keep getting penalties. It’s not good for the championship and it’s not something that has happened with this regularity before, last year and this year.

Rivals are not happy with Scott McLaughlin’s penalty. Picture: AAP Images

“There always seem to be question marks. To be honest, I don’t feel comfortable about it.”

The latest penalty came after McLaughlin’s victory at Bathurst was already clouded after the team was hit with a record-breaking fine and loss of 300 team points for issuing an illegal team order for the champion’s teammate Fabian Coulthard to “go slow” and hold up the field.

Asked if the team should have been stripped of the Bathurst win, Dane said DJR Team Penske should have instead been stripped of more team points.

“I’m not sure given the nature of the issue with the qualifying engine. I think it more appropriate that they should have had a load of team points taken off them,” Dane said.

“But yet again they just seem to have been fined an amount of money which to be honest to that team is meaningless.”

Dane said the penalties cast a cloud over McLaughlin’s Bathurst win forever.

Scott McLaughlin has come under fire from rivals. Picture: AAP Images

“I don’t want to take anything away from the way that Scotty has driven this year because I think he has done an exemplary job,” Dane said.

“But you can’t get away from the fact that Bathurst win is tainted forever and now the pole position has disappeared.

“It’s not good and it’s not the way the biggest race of the year in Australia should be run.”

Sandown 500 winner Jamie Whincup admitted the penalties handed down before the race had been a distraction and made the team wonder what could have been.

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His teammate Shane van Gisbergen finished second behind McLaughlin at Bathurst.

“The news that came through about Penske’s engine this morning certainly distracted us,” Whincup said.

“We were reminiscing and thinking back on the biggest race of the year and what could have been, but we had to keep the focus to go out there and race hard.

“I don’t have an opinion on it, it was obviously huge news for our sport and we just had to put our heads down and focus on this weekend.”

Originally published as Roland Dane lashes penalty handed to DJR Team Penske and Scott McLaughlin