V8 Supercar team owners (many of whom are short of cash since the introduction of the ‘Car Of The Future’ last year) are calling for a re-do of the new 2014 race re-start regulations after a devastating start to the 2014 race season at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.
Brad Jones Racing faces the biggest workload to prepare for round two of the championship in Melbourne after Jason Bright’s BOC Commodore was tipped into a horrific multiple rollover after a restart in race three in Adelaide.
That crash also took out four other cars.
New for 2014 are single file restarts after safety car periods with the race leader required to hold speed to 60 km/h before he reaches the designated ‘Acceleration Zone’ near the start/finish line.
V8 Supercar organizers though the move would make the restarts more exciting…easy for them to say when they’re not facing the subsequent repair bills!
The other headline news from Adelaide was the immediate pace of the new-for-2014 Volvo S60s being run by Garry Rogers Motorsport – Scott McLaughlin was on the pace all weekend and finished second in race two.
Team boss Garry Rogers is a tough nut who loves his harness racing horses and V8 team but even he was moved to tears following McLaughlin’s hard-fought second position.
The immediate pace of the Volvos must be a concern for the 2013 new arrivals – Nissan and Erebus.
Other good news after an off-season with significant personnel changes amongst the teams was some signs of renewed pace from the Holden Racing Team with James Courtney taking the race win in the longer Sunday race.
Overall, Red Bull/888 driver Craig Lowndes scooped the pool, leaving Adelaide with 282 points, ahead of Fabian Coulthard (230) and Shane Van Gisbergen (221).
Due to the tight turn one at the Albert Park Grand Prix circuit, the venue for round two of the championship in two weeks, one V8 Supercar team owner told Car Showroom the teams will be demanding a return to 2013 restart procedures for Melbourne and a serious re-think about the plan for future races.
“Combined with the turn one crash in race three and the shunts out back (turn eight) lots of us have taken a big hit to the budget and it’s only round one,” he said. “We’ve got a spare car nearly finished but some of the smaller teams won’t be able to finish the year if this keeps up.”
Of the turn eight incidents, the clash between Erebus driver Will Davison and Nissan pilot James Moffat seems certain to be reviewed. The pair had a tense overtaking move coming out of turn seven, but clipping the back of another car at the turn-in point to a 220km/h top-gear corner was never going to end well.
