Having seen his best qualifying result of the season end in retirement in the opening race of the Desert 400, things didn't get much better for Paul Morris after a tough trip to Bahrain for the Sirromet Wines driver that saw him hit with penalties in races two and three while attempting to bounce back from his earlier woe.
Morris said he accepted blame for the first contact with Todd Kelly's Holden Racing Team Commodore, which resulted in the 39-year-old Gold Coast racer losing championship points, but he did not believe he was to blame for the second incident. The pair also had on-track contact on October 21 during the opening lap of the third and final race of the previous championship round in Surfers Paradise. On that occasion Morris was forced out of the race because of damage to his car.
In race two Morris was 14th, worth three championship points, but Kelly didn't finish following the coming together between the two. A post-race investigation of contact between them found Morris had breached the careless driving. Stewards imposed a penalty of 38-seconds added to Morris' race time. He dropped to 23rd in the revised results.
There was further contact between Morris and Kelly in the final race and neither finished. After the incident Morris was issued with a pit-lane penalty and a ten-seconds holding penalty while in pit lane.
"It was my mistake in today's first race,” he said. “I tried to go up the inside of Rick [Kelly] and went off the racing line. I locked a brake and hit Todd. It was completely my fault. However, I didn't agree with the penalty I got in the last race. He was passing me and turned into me. That's what put me off the track. The accident bent the front rail and busted the air box of my car.
“There is some damage to fix when we get the car back to Australia to have it ready for Tasmania. I had a good car here so it's disappointing not to get some points. The main thing we need to improve is mid-corner front grip, which you notice when you're running with the fast guys. We made some changes for the last race and the car looked after its tyres better."
