Michael Clemente could only stand and stare at his car as it lay wounded in the mud, just a few hundred metres short of the chequered flag.
The Carl Cox Motorsport driver failed to finish the TCR Australia Series closer at Winton Motor Raceway after a clumsy last lap clash, which capped off a tumultuous weekend.
The chaos began when he gave second place driver Josh Buchan a nudge at the third-to-last turn on the final lap, which cast the Hyundai i30 pilot wide on corner exit.
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Clemente slowed and waved his hands furiously as if to suggest the place was still Buchan’s, directing him to rejoin in front.
In all of the kerfuffle, fourth place driver Zac Soutar tried to take advantage of the two slow cars ahead of him.
Soutar got alongside Clemente and had almost cleared him when he came across the nose of the Cupra.
Soutar wasn’t clear, however. Contact between the pair sent Clemente into a spin and back across the track into the concrete wall.
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After copping a whack, his car dug into the mud where it remained.
It was a brutal end to the weekend for Clemente, who won the first race but failed to start the second after a clutch failure.
A frantic few hours between the race saw the team fit a new clutch and gearbox just in time for the finale.
Clemente stormed from eighth on the grid to third when the final lap melee unfolded.
Speaking with Stan Sport’s Fabian Coulthard and Greg Rust. Clemente expressed his frustration in himself.
“I locked it up into the third-last corner and just hit him off,” said Clemente.
“I tried to let him come back on. I didn’t want to do anything wrong as well.
“Once all three of us bunched up in the final corner… I ended up in the wall.
“Unfortunately just my own fault. Gutted for the team. They worked so bloody hard to get the car back out there. Pretty gutted.”
Buchan offered his assessment of the incident.
“He obviously squared me up pretty good,” said Buchan.
“Based off of what’s happened, he probably should have gone and got the five seconds.
“He did the right things. He’s a great guy, we’re mates, and it’s unfortunate.
“I have no idea what happened. I was just getting drilled from behind.
“Not my ideal Sunday afternoon, but we’re here, we’re good.”
At the head of the field, Bailey Sweeny was untouchable as he streaked out to a whopping 20-second win.
With his latest win, Sweeny maintains his lead at the head of the standings on 387 points.
Buchan sits 36 points in arrears while Cox is 61 points back in third. Clemente had come up to second with his race one win but has tumbled to eighth with a DNS and DNF.
The TCR Australia Series returns at Queensland Raceway on August 11-13 as part of the next SpeedSeries event.
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