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Motorsport
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Andrew van Leeuwen

Swearing fine could make Ryan camera shy

The Erebus CEO let rip on live TV on Saturday evening when asked if his team planned to protest a forceful last-lap passing move from Shane van Gisbergen on Will Brown.

Van Gisbergen had made light contact with the rear bumper of Brown's Erebus Camaro before breezing past to grab third place.

The Triple Eight star was slapped with a five-second penalty for his actions, however that hadn't been communicated before Ryan was interviewed on TV.

"Shane can't keep fucking doing that shit. It's bullshit," he told Supercars Media reporter Chad Neylon.

Despite being limited to pay TV and broadcast at a time approaching 10pm local time, Motorsport Australia opted to fine Ryan $5000, half of which is suspended.

He was also hit with a motorsport-related community service order.

According to Ryan, a plausible outcome from the fine is that he will shy away from TV cameras during tense moments.

"100 per cent; I get the leaders of our sport telling me to stay who I am, and then I get a $5000 fine and have to do some community service," he told Motorsport.com.

"So of course I'm going to shut up. I don't know what to do next.

"I shouldn't have sworn, but in this day and age 10 year old kids are going to school and swearing. It's not like 20 years ago."

Erebus versus Triple Eight has been one of the key stories of 2023, the teams having already come to blows in the stewards room.

Erebus protested a race-winning passing move from van Gisbergen on Brodie Kostecki in Perth earlier this year, a protest that was ultimately thrown out.

As for the community service, Ryan is expecting a stint in race control during a Super2 session at some point.

"They've told me that I have to do something with Motorsport Australia and I have sit with the stewards for a Super2 session and learn about their job and how hard their job is," he said.

"And that's fair enough. I'm happy to do it.

"It's not really going to change anything. I'm just trying to do something that makes them know that I care about their job. Which I do, I just don't care about their job when they don't make the decisions that they need to make. It's not that often, but sometimes it is.

"I still go back to Perth, and I argued with them again about it last night. They don't understand that it was the three laps prior to what Shane did at Perth, all that bumping, is what let him past Brodie.

"They are there to do one job and they read the text, and if you do something wrong by the text, you're out. They don't care about how it happened."

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