Stewards' hearing to decide title fate

Following the third race of the weekend, in which contact on lap two at Honda Hairpin between Lowndes and Kelly saw Kelly given a drive-through penalty, the Investigating and Prosecuting Officer (IPO) Peter Wollerman viewed further footage of the incident and arrived at a final decision.

"The penalty was based on a determination by the stewards that there was a breach of the rules in terms of careless driving by Rick Kelly. After some further consideration the matter was further considered by the IPO of the race," said chief steward Steve Chopping.

"He considered a great deal of data, in car footage and other things concerning the in-car activities of car 15 and car 888 and whilst the IPO investigated those things Triple Eight lodged a protest against the penalty imposed in the race.

"Now that the IPO has determined that the matter doesn't warrant being referred to the stewards for further penalty the stewards will now refer to the hearing of the Triple Eight protest."

Lowndes' team Triple Eight Race Engineering disagreed with the decision that it didn't warrant further review by the stewards, and so Triple Eight's protest means the matter will be heard at a Stewards' hearing on Monday at midday, at a venue yet to be determined.

2006 V8 Supercar champion Rick Kelly was not surprised about the investigation, considering the closeness of the fight: "It's not the ideal way to win the Championship. With the amount riding on it I fully expect that any small incident that has an effect on the Championship that they would look into it."

Meanwhile, Ford's motorsport manager Ray Price was unhappy with the decision, considering the effect the initial incident had on the championship result: "We felt we were hard done by. We believe that there is probably a difference between a racing incident that may cost a race win or a meeting win is different to one that costs a Championship."