The quick-fire world of Social Media commentary is a mine field of good and bad.

Of clever and intuitive opinion, to trolls and at times total contradiction.

In the world of the Repco Supercars Championship, every possible emotion is laid bare week after week.

The action at Symmons Plains in Round 2 is no exception.

Howls of dirty tactics, unsporting driving tactics, blatant crashing were soon in the Twittersphere after Shane Van Gisbergen served up another bullish, winning performance in Tassie.

This tirade was matched with comments about ‘Great aggressive driving, rubbing is racing, and if other drivers do not like it then do something else’.

Was it equally divided? Probably not and who really cares.

The big issue here is you simply can’t have it both ways.

Prior to the announcement of the new Gen 3 rules, which have delivered the stunning new Ford Mustang GT and Chevy Camaro, the naysayers were actively promoting the end of Supercars in Australia.

Going way back to when then CEO James Warburton announced that FOX Sports would be the lead broadcaster, Social Media was awash with ….

“I cannot afford Foxtel.” Nick Mc posted at the time

“Every event should be on free to air” Robbie H posted

Underlying this was a moan about how Supercars was becoming boring. These same people saying they would no longer watch away. The sport was too sterile. No passing. Same winners each week and on and on it went.

But in 2022 with all that behind us the commentary has turned to the driving standards. I guess it has to be something to tickle the keyboard.

Shane Van Gisbergen is an outstanding racing driver. Few would have his totally fixated focus on driving. Twice Supercars Champion SVG supplements his Triple 888 duties with anything he can find to drive. Rally’s here and in New Zealand, drifting, a sports car foray in Europe, Time Attack, Speedway (until Roland suggested not) and if there is a spare day, on his Simulator going I-Racing.

But he is a hard and tough racer, Damn Tough! And it seems he has ruffled feathers once again.

On one hand the fans want hard tough racing, but the ultimate exponent of that craft, SVG is slammed when he fires up the inside of driver after driver, often making contact and then making the pass.

His moves at Symmons were sublime. Passing over the hump into Turn 1 is something few would try.

And this newfound high line at Turn 4 most drivers now use, leaves a gap that you could park the Queen Mary in on the inside. Cam Waters and Will Davison should both have known that when they saw SVG’s #97 coming up fast that leaving a massive hole is probably not the best strategy.

On the other hand, Cam Waters running Tim Slade’s Cool Drive Mustang out of road at over 250km/hr was just plain crazy. SVG’s dominant moves at Turn 4 would have been under 100 km/hr per hour such was his precision at the slowest corner on the track.

So, why are we digging in on the aspects of hard racing? One of the toughest and most successful drivers of their era, dual Champion Marcos Ambrose, was supportive of SVG. He said Van Gisbergen is “breaking new ground” with his driving style.

“He made the pass, he put his car in position,” Ambrose said on the Fox Supercars telecast. “The other drivers he was passing, they didn’t like it, but they couldn’t do anything about it once he’s made that move.

“He’s just breaking new ground on these passes, the way he’s going about it; it’s quite exceptional, to be honest,” Marcos said. “I don’t know what the officials are going to say about it, whether they’re going to say, ‘not again,’ but I loved it. I thought it was just really hard racing, it was fair racing eventually… everyone finished the race,” he concluded.

Looking back, our sport is steeped in this type of hard-edged racing.

‘Bad guy’ Alan Moffat came on strong with his Coke Mustang in the early 1970’s ruffling the feathers of Norm Beechey and Pete Geoghegan.

Bob Jane was as feisty as they come and would have you off in a heartbeat.

Later in the 1908’s Alan Grice was the bad boy of Group C Touring Car Racing.

Fast forward to The Enforcer, Russell Ingalls’s battles with Mark Skaife. Alan Jones and Marcos also had their gloves off on many occasions against Skaife.

AJ and Skaifey had a good stoush at the same Symmons Plains corner ending up in a few words in the pits back in 1993.

Even new TV recruit Garth Tander was as hard as nails.

So, is it just the era we live in? The fans cry out for action, close racing, a bit of paint exchange but when one driver takes it to a new level, the dreaded political correctness takes over.

Perhaps as Ambrose alluded to, the other drivers need to sharpen their act and not let SVG get away with it.

Time will tell.