Safety car confusion in Perth

A chain of events during race 24 at last weekend’s BigPond 300 led to mass confusion and the second Safety Car crisis in as many events.

However this time Race Director Tim Schenken stated the Safety Car driver ignored his instructions, which saw the XXXX branded Audi sitting just off the track at turn three as cars raced past it, as opposed to the issue at Phillip Island earlier this month.

It began when Sprint Gas Racing’s Jason Bargwanna and Jack Daniel’s Racing driver Todd Kelly got into an altercation which spun Kelly around at the last turn during Perth’s Sunday race.

Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Lee Holdsworth then crashed head-on into Kelly’s stationary car and as drivers scrambled into the pits, Toll Holden Racing Team’s Will Davison blocked pitlane entry after slipping on fluid and hitting a wall.

His teammate Garth Tander was in the race lead and aborted his pitstop at the last minute because pit entry was blocked.

But he had already tripped the transponder and so the track position software showed he was in pitlane when he wasn’t.

Meanwhile, rescue crews left their station on the infield to clear the Kelly/Holdsworth crash, but were forced to sit off the track as drivers made their way around the crash at the last corner.

Schenken did not have sight of pitlane entry because of the nature of the track and relying on the track position software he was unaware that Tander did not actually pit.

The Race Director has received a report into what went on in the Safety Car between the communicator who receives Schenken’s instructions and the driver, which was an unnamed WA official.

“I think we were caught out with two things,” Schenken said.

“First of all I don’t think anyone would argue that the leader coming in tripping the pit entry loop and then turning right and rejoining the track caused confusion.

“I would be very surprised if any people apart from perhaps the teams themselves had seen what would happen because of course we can’t see pitlane entry.

“In the meantime the Safety Car was on standby and the driver, not following the correct procedure, drove out and blocked the pit exit.

“We’re relying on the tracking program; that was the first unusual circumstance, and the second one of course was the Safety Car not following what it was required to do.”

Schenken said officials rushed to get the Safety Car out of the way because it had blocked Team BOC driver Jason Richards at the pit exit – one of the things that is explicitly forbidden in the Safety Car briefing notes.

“Jason Richards got caught behind him and we had to deal with that and get the Safety Car out the way and I don’t think Jason Richards lost any positions in that,” he said.

“Jason came out (of his pit bay) and he knows he’s not to overtake the safety car unless the green light is on.

“And the safety car (driver), despite a number of calls… eventually stopped at turn three.

“In the meantime all the field had gone through as they were instructed to do and the green light was on the roof was turned on, at least I presume it was; the field went all the way through including Tander who did his refuelling stop and rejoined having not lost the lead.”

Tander, who finished the race in third, has suggested a strategist who understands the sport and pit strategies would be an ideal candidate to drive the Safety Car in future.

“There was a bit of confusion for us there; RC (Rob Crawford) was on the radio saying they had no idea what was going on; just if the Safety Car pulls in front of you don’t hit it,” he said.

“That’s two safety car deployments in a row where there’s been mass confusion and it just looks bad for our sport.

“People watching it TV and people watching it here (at the track), I mean they struggle enough to know what’s going on let alone something like that happening.”

Schenken said an average of 50 safety car periods occur throughout each season.

“And I have to say, that’s the first time I’ve ever had the safety car not do what it’s required to do,” he said.

“At Phillip Island it did exactly what it was asked to do, there was no fault at all at Phillip Island.”

V8 Supercar Operations Manager, Kurt Sakzewski, concurred with Schenken’s explanation.

“The Safety Car was told to stand by and it actually deployed so that was step one,” he said.

“It deployed and stopped in pit exit road, that’s problem number two.

“Then it took a while to get car eight around him and then the third problem was it didn’t stop when it was requested to do so.

“Those on the race channel would have heard Tim was actually requesting him to stop from turn one all the way around to it finally, finally, stopped on the entrance to turn four.”