An ex-employee has been blamed for exposing a Holden Racing Team (HRT) fuel trimming device that has been banned by V8 Supercars ahead of this weekend's Bathurst 1000.
HRT's Walkinshaw Racing managing director Adrian Burgess rejected cheating allegations, saying "team politicking" had led officials to re-write the rules and ban the gadget they used at last month's Sandown 500.
HRT driver Garth Tander, who finished fourth at Sandown, was more specific.
"A recently departed staff member alerted someone else," he told Sky Sports Radio.
"Our game is full of competitive advantage and someone that's perceived to have ... a little gadget that works better than someone else's, you can't hide it for long."
A fuel economy edge can make or break a team's Bathurst 1000 hopes as six-time V8 series champ Jamie Whincup cruelly found out last year when he ran out of petrol on the 161st and final lap while leading.
Economy will further be affected by a new gearing set-up at this year's Bathurst 1000 expected to ensure drivers break the 300kph barrier for the first time.
Tander described the fuel device as "just a clever interpretation of the rules".
"I think because a couple of other teams didn't think of it they didn't like it so they got it thrown out," he said.
"To be honest it didn't make a big difference."
Fingers were pointed at HRT after V8 Supercars issued a pre-Bathurst 1000 advisory clarifying fuel trimming devices were banned.
V8 Supercars on Thursday stressed HRT had not breached any rules, just interpreted them "in a way which wasn't intended".
HRT will not be penalised for using the device at Sandown.
"We have clarified the rules in relation to fuel trimming with all teams for the avoidance of any doubt," a V8 spokesman said.
"Naturally all teams will seek to optimise any advantage they can especially when there is so small a margin between the cars.
"As a consequence, from time to time teams will interpret the rules in a way which wasn't intended.
"We have used this as an opportunity to clarify the rules so there is no grey area and every team is clear."
Burgess put the incident down to a "difference of opinion".
"We're not in the business of trying to cheat," he told speedcafe website.
"We're in the business of using the brains that we've got to come up with different solutions.
"They've re-written the rule and we'll have to do things slightly differently.
"I think our engineers came up with a good solution and now you're getting involved in other teams politicking and it blew into a bigger situation than it really was."
Share
