A RULE brought in ahead of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship played a part in the ugly Safety Car restart seen in Darwin on Sunday.
With Broc Feeney slowly leading the field to green, waiting as long as possible before restarting the race, mayhem occurred back in the pack as several drivers were forced to take avoiding action.
“During the off-season, the Safety Car restart rule changed,” Supercars’ driving standards advisor Craig Baird revealed on V8 Sleuth’s Race Control podcast.
“So if you go back – forget the weaving, that’s allowed, that’s back in, no problem – but we had a rule where you can overlap from the apex of the final corner. That component was taken out of the rulebook.
“So that means they have all got to stay one behind the other; no one is allowed to overlap.”
Indeed, a section of the 2024 operations manual reads: “A Car may not overlap or overtake another until it has crossed the Control Line after the signal to restart has been given unless an Automobile slows with an obvious problem and an Automobile cannot avoid passing it without unduly delaying the remainder of the field.”
Compared to the corresponding component of the 2023 operations manual: “It is permitted for a Car to overlap with another Car but only after the apex of the final turn or such other turn as has been nominated by the RD (race director).”
The tweak brings Supercars in line with Motorsport Australia’s circuit race standing regulations.
Baird explained he would like to see Supercars revert to its 2023 ruleset on restarts, however.
“I rode onboard with Broc Feeney… everyone said he went too slow. He didn’t do anything, he just continued to do one pace, but because he has read the rulebook and the new version of it, he knows no one is allowed up beside him,” he continued.
“So why would you go early? Because he doesn’t want everyone to be in a group hunting him down into Turn 1 on a restart, so he just led them down and stayed constant.
“People (down the field) are anticipating the leader going, and they compress it from the back.
“When you have got the rule where you can overlap at the apex of the final corner, that guy (leading) has no option but to get going into the final corner.
“(Race director) James Taylor does a fantastic job, he always makes sure the green is out early because he wants it to stretch from the front. He doesn’t want the guy in 16th pushing from the back.
“So that’s going to be a discussion this week, is if we can try to change that rule back, just to tidy that up.
“It was really messy… we have got to try to change that, because that’s a complete mess.”
