V8 Supercars need a rule change

Saturday’s V8 Supercars race should have had an epic conclusion, yet despite the fact it was still a high quality race it failed to reach the heights it could have and should have. It highlighted there needs to be a rule change.

As a sport they have done so much right over the years to produce one of the highest quality brands of racing you will see anywhere in the world. Often these days you will see all 26 cars covered by less then a second at the end of a qualifying session.

Yet as the race was drawing to a conclusion, there was frustration. I found myself asking the question how is it that the governing body has allowed this issue to remain? Something that should be so simple to fix, something that will always effect the quality of racing when it eventuates.

I speak of essentially allowing lapped cars to remain in the way, allowing them on a restart to impede those fighting for positions ability to actually do that.

With just laps remianing on Saturday there was a Safety Car period. The top three at the time were Jamie Whincup, Shane van Gisbergen and Mark Winterbottom.

All were quick at the time the Safety Car was deployed. Mark Winterbottom had been the quickest at the back end of each stint but was too far behind to ever be able to challenge for the win at that stage, Van Gisbergen had also been quick but his teammate was at the time the Safety Car came out just over five seconds ahead.

What should have been witnessed was those three fighting it out at the end for the win, three incredibly talented drivers it would have been incredible to watch. Yet that was never in all honesty a realistic proposition once the race got underway again, as from first to third there was lapped traffic.

Van Gisbergen had a car or two between himself and Whincup, and Winterbottom had two or three between he and Van Gisbergen.

Lapped traffic should never impede those racing for position, especially when it is fighting for the lead. On a restart lapped cars have no place up the front of the field, sitting between a couple of cars that are actually fighting for position at the pointy end.

The sport has done so much to create this incredible brand of racing yet one of the less complex issues to fix still remains.

There is no reason as to why this issue can not be resolved.

Under a Safety Car period, once the entire field has all caught the Safety Car then those lapped cars would be permitted to pass the Safety Car to go around to the back of the field – or they could simply move to the side and allow all to pass and then slot back in at the back.

Seeing lapped traffic impede those fighting for position is not all that frequent overall in V8 Supercars anymore, and that is partly because the brand of racing produced is literally that close. Yet it is something that should never be seen in this day and age.

Fans want to see the highest quality of racing, and late Saturday afternoon those final few laps with those incredible drivers at the front would have ensured an intense finish. The postions may not have changed. But they were never truly given the chance to change.

In the blink of an eye Whincup had a lead of 1.5 seconds and a major factor in that was the lapped car Van Gisbergen. For Whincup could take off at the restart yet Van Gisbergen was stuck behind a lapped and slower car so was never given the opportunity to match his teammate on the restart.

Generally rule changes are not made until the off season however this is one that could be implemented between rounds easily, as there would not be a single figure in the entire sport that would oppose the rule change.

Nascar is a series that deals with this quite well, and ensures that those fighting for position are not impeded in any way shape or forn on a restart, and that is what we should see in motorsport.

At a Sandown 500 I got the opportunity to ask one of the drivers about this very issue and his response was blunt. He told me we all hate it, it is something that when it eventuates as a driver you always think “oh this is great isn’t it!”

“You can be stuck behind one lapped car for at least a couple of corners, and then if there are two to four it can take you a couple of laps.”

I am not certain why the implementation of a rule that removes that all together has never eventuated, yet surely in this day and age something can be done about it.

Let’s hope the powers that be realised on the weekend this is something they need to address.