Andy Neate has been penalised for causing the huge accident in the second British Touring Car Championship race at Thruxton, which took out the Motorbase driver, Team HARD’s Glynn Geddie and BTC Racing’s Jade Edwards.
At the first corner of the second race, Neate made contact with the right-rear corner of Geddie’s CUPRA, spinning him in the pack and collecting Edwards’ Honda.
All three cars were pitched off the track into the barriers at high-speed, causing extensive front-end damage to the Honda and Geddie’s car to roll.
Team HARD Team Principal Tony Gilham later alluded to the possibility that Geddie’s car would be a write-off, only two races into its BTCC inauguration.
Neate is reported at the time to have blamed the contact on an unspecified mechanical failure on his car, a finding refuted by officials.
Race officials have deemed Neate to be at fault for the crash, finding that he violated Article C.1.1.5 by “driving in a manner incompatible with general safety or departing from the standard of a reasonably competent driver, as there is no evidence of mechanical failure with the car from the data that was obtained after the race.”
Neate has been fined £2,000 for the crash and also had three penalty points on his licence.
Elsewhere, Tom Ingram was given a formal reprimand and two penalty points for running Adam Morgan off the track in race three.
Colin Turkington was penalised after race one for spinning Ash Sutton, with the BMW driver being given a penalty of 17 seconds and three penalty points on his licence.