JAMIE Whincup was sensationally rubbed out of the Bathurst 1000 for overtaking a safety car after ignoring team orders to pit.

In a bombshell finale to Australia’s most dramatic race, Whincup was sent to the back of the field while flying high in second place after failing to stop behind the safety car when a crash on lap 138 shook Mount Panorama.

Whincup and eventual winner Craig Lowndes were locked in a furious four-way fight for the lead with Ford’s Mark Winterbottom and pole winner David Reynolds when Scott Pye slammed his Falcon into a concrete wall and was left momentarily unconscious.

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Infuriating his team — almost unbelievably for the second year in a row — the Red Bull Racing Australia driver ignored an order to pit in what led to a race-blowing infringement.

Attempting to avoid queuing behind teammate Lowndes in pit lane, Whincup pushed his car up the mountain as his three rivals stopped for fuel.

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Red Bull boss Rolland Dane revealed his driver had ignored the order to pit before passing the safety car.

“He did,’’ Dane said.

“We didn’t. He was meant to come in.’’

Whincup was attempting to save time — and his race — by avoiding stacking, but instead left his team fuming when he illegally passed the safety car.

“I didn’t want to queue behind Lowndsey,’’ Whincup admitted.

“I was coming up the hill and I saw the green light so I thought ‘happy days’ and went straight past. But I don’t want to bring the team down.’’

The four-time Bathurst champion was issued a pit-lane penalty that relegated him from second to 19th in a cruel end to his latest Mount Panorama blast.

Dane said Whincup thought the safety car was displaying a green light, which would have made it legal for him to pass.

“Not that we can see but Jamie was convinced he saw green,’’ Dane said.

“But anyway it is what it is.’’

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Whincup fell to pieces after the penalty with the all-time championship record-holder slipping and sliding off the track as he attempted to mount an impossible salvage mission.

Whincup was slammed by his team following a similar controversy during last year’s Bathurst belter when he disobeyed a direction to pit for fuel.

On that occasion Whincup chose to roll the dice and continue in a desperate big to claim his fifth Bathurst victory.

But the move backfired as he ran out of fuel and handed victory to Ford young gun Chaz Mostert in a crushing defeat.

Sunday’s mistake that ruined his dream of winning another Bathurst title continued Whincup’s year from hell and almost certainly ended his slim hopes of claiming a seventh championship.

The Triple Eight racer came into the Mount Panorama slog-fest in eighth place on the championship ladder after a season filled with shockers.

Whincup was struck down by luck at last month’s Sandown 500 when a punctured tyre cost him a potential win.

While starting the year with a win in Adelaide, Whincup lacked the genuine pace to keep up with championship pacesetter Chaz Mostert and Winterbottom but was poised to strike back at Bathurst.

RBRA looked to have turned the corner with genuine speed emerging at Sandown — and continuing at Bathurst when Whincup set the fastest ever lap around Mount Panorama in a practice lap scorcher.