Anton De Pasquale during the Gold Coast 500. Image: InSyde Media
Team 18 ended the Saturday race with its cars third and fourth on the road – David Reynolds ahead of Finals contender Anton De Pasquale.
The squad had opted against swapping the cars, knowing that Reynolds would be classified second following a five-second time penalty for Matt Payne.
De Pasquale subsequently endured a Sunday shocker and only narrowly held onto the last spot above the finals cut-line, denying Toyota driver Ryan Wood.
Burgess admitted the non-call on Saturday had been a “risk” that was at the forefront of his mind as Sunday’s drama played out.
“It did venture through my head a few times; would we be eating humble pie at the end of this race that we didn’t change the order yesterday?” Burgess told Speedcafe.
“Yes, I’m not going to lie there. I did think it.”
De Pasquale made the cut-off after two fellow Chevrolet drivers pitted late to take on additional fuel.
Supercars confirmed those cars would not have made it to the finish without the extra stop, while GM motorsport boss Simon McNamara denied any claims of collusion.
General Motors denies Supercars manipulation claims
Speaking directly after the race, Burgess said his team had suspected the Erebus and PremiAir Camaros may have been under-fuelled.
“I haven’t had a chance to talk to them. I don’t know. I think they needed fuel, didn’t they? I don’t know. I really don’t know,” he said.
“We could see people’s fuel times and they looked like they needed some. So, thankfully they did.”
The suspicion over manufacturer tactics comes during a year in which GM has joined its teams in a data and information sharing alliance.
That essentially consists of an open book of setup information between homologation squad Team 18, Erebus, PremiAir and Matt Stone Racing.
Asked if there was any pre-race discussion about helping each other out, Burgess said: “No more than normal. No more than the way that we help each other already.
“We’re here to go racing. We appreciate their support throughout the year, and hopefully they appreciate our support back to them during the year.
“But we didn’t sit down or anything and say, ‘right, we’re going to do this’. We’ve got to go racing.”
The dramatic finish came after a lowly 21st place qualifying effort for De Pasquale and a clash in the opening metres of the race with Grove Racing’s Kai Allen that punctured the car’s right-rear tyre.
That appeared another huge blow to Team 18 just two weeks after it lost the Bathurst 1000 by running out of fuel on the final lap.
“It was just living your worst nightmares again. When you see the tyre ripping the guard apart, you think it’s all over,” Burgess said.
“But at the end of the day, everyone’s trained and we instilled in them that you’ve just got to keep focus, you’ve got to keep punching on.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen in these races, and that’s what the guys did. That’s what the engineers did. That’s what the pit crew did
“We managed to get back out in front of the Safety Car, so you didn’t go down a lap, and we just focused on what we needed to do to get him the necessary points.”