Super2 rocked by Bathurst engine breach

The final ruling from Motorsport Australia comes more than a month after Boys took a career-first win in the second-tier Supercars series at Mount Panorama.

The Walkinshaw Racing-built V8 engine was removed from his Image Racing Holden for routine checks following the race, upon which it was found to not comply with its Engine Specification Document.

Boys has been disqualified from the race, handing the win to MW Motorsport's Tyler Everingham. It has also cost him his early series lead, Zak Best taking over at the top of the standings as Boys drops down to 14th.

According to the stewards report, "the [Supercars Engine Projects Manager] ran the engine on the Supercars dyno and found that it produced an accumulated engine power number (AEP) which exceeded the maximum AEP approved by Supercars for a VF Commodore engine".

The motor, WR62, failed to confirm to ESD SC-2-305 through both the AEP breach and components that are inconsistent with the ESD.

The report states that WR sought approval for a possible change of components but that there was no application to vary the ESD.

It also details that Image Racing argued against the penalty of disqualification on the grounds that the engine came from a supplier (WR) and the team had no idea it wasn't legal.

"The authorised representative of Image Racing submitted that such a penalty would be harsh and requested that the stewards consider a lesser penalty," reads the report.

"He pointed to the fact that his team, Image Racing, has no history of having ever committed a technical breach of the rules in [Super2]. He submitted that, while the team is deemed to take responsibility for the breach under the rules, it was the supplying competitor which had supplied a non-conforming engine.

"He also submitted that Image Racing had no knowledge that the engine was non-conforming, and no reason to suspect it might be, and that a penalty of disqualification would mean that the driver of car #49 at the Mount Panorama 500, Jordon Boys, would be stripped of his maiden race win in [Super2].

"We accept that Image Racing has a previously unblemished record in this category and that it was reliant upon [WR] to supply a complying engine. However, the recommenced penalty for a breach of a technical rule is, and has always been, disqualification.

"There is no reason to depart from that longstanding policy. While the AEP of the subject engine when tested was not grossly in excess of the approved maximum, it exceeded it by a factor which yielded a performance advantage for car #49."

Boys used the same engine to finish third in the first race in Bathurst, however that result remains unaffected.

"WR62 was not tested after Race 1 and we received no evidence from which we could conclude without hesitation that the engine when used in Race 1 exceeded the approved maximum AEP," the report concludes.

"We do not know if any free components were changed between Race 1 and Race 2 or when it was last refreshed and the extent to which (if any) the engine had 'relaxed' since such a rebuild."