IT was a special moment when Scott McLaughlin peeled off a Supercars lap record during this year's Bathurst 1000 top 10 shootout, but his one-lap flyer will no longer stand as a Mount Panorama milestone due to an engine breach.
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McLaughlin piloted his Ford Mustang around the 6.213 kilometre track in a scorching two minutes, 03.3783 seconds lap to claim pole position in the Great Race for the second time.
The star Kiwi then went on to win the Bathurst 1000 alongside co-driver Alex Premat, but by that stage the team had replaced the engine in question after engineers spotted a potential issue.
But on Sunday CAMS stewards released their decision regarding a technical breach in the #17 Shell V-Power Racing Mustang's engine used by McLaughlin in qualifying and the shootout.
The engine was examined by Supercars' technical personnel and the valve lift in a number of cylinders was found to have exceeded the maximum permitted valve lift prescribed for car #17.
"Following the event, engine 009, which was used in car #17 in practice sessions one to seven, in qualifying for race 25 and in the top 10 shootout (and then replaced prior to the warm up for race 25), was examined by Supercars technical personnel and the valve lift in a number of cylinders was found to have exceeded the maximum permitted valve lift prescribed by the ESD for car #17," the stewards report stated.
While officials stated the breach was not deliberate, as the engine did contravene the regulation, McLaughlin and Premat have been disqualified from Bathurst qualifying and the shootout.
That means McLaughlin's 2:03.3783 lap record no longer stands.
It was a mark which fellow Supercars driver Chaz Mostert felt would have stood the test of time.
"As a fan on the fence you want to see cars going faster and faster every year, records getting broken.
"We're not going to quite have that any more. It will be slightly boring when it comes to qualifying."
Even McLaughlin admitted his mark could have stood for some time due to the looming Supercars regulation changes.
"I would say so. You take grip away and less engine power, it's obviously going to go slower," he said after the shootout."
READ MORE: McLaren boss labels Mount Panorama 'awesome'
DJR Team Penske was also fined $30,000 for the breach, while after qualifying fifth for Sunday's Sandown 500, McLaughlin was relegated to the rear of the grid.
DJR Team Penske issued a statement apologising following the breach.
"The steward's report confirmed that there was clearly no intent from our team to circumvent the rules and there was no evidence that we benefited from any performance advantage as the engine passed the Supercars power tests on their dynamometer post-event, returning results that did not exceed the Accumulated Power Number nor the Engine Power Weighted Average Number," it stated.
"As the lift now measures a few thousandths of an inch high on a few valves, we can only conclude that either the engine wasn't measured properly when it was initially assembled or the damage that occurred in the engine contributed to a change to the maximum valve lift in the forward cylinders.
"We apologise to Scott, Alex, our partners and our supporters, and we will continue to focus on winning our second consecutive Virgin Australia Supercars Championship."
