A WILD opening race in Darwin created plenty of drama and controversy, more carnage in one race than the last six straight and some properly hard racing. Here’s TRT’s Hot Take from a wild day in the Territory.

WORDS: Richard Craill

ONE OF the biggest things that drives me mad about Supercars is the idiocy that is pit lane stacking.

In a congested lane – Darwin’s is far from the widest in the championship – trying to service all 24 cars on 12 pit booms at the same time was always going to make for dramas and thus once again it happened today.

Triple Eight was justifiably penalised for bumping into Anton de Pasquale’s Penrite Commodore, but in reality it was Fabian Coulthard’s No. 12 Mustang being parked in pit lane that caused the whole debacle.

Coulthard was stopped waiting for Scott McLaughlin, who was in the middle of a pit stop, and that caused Anton to prop as he toured down the lane following his pit stop.

It looked like Triple Eight saw that prop, decided to release Whincup and the pair collided, if gently; but it really shouldn’t have happened.

That Pit Lane stacking continues to be a thing the sport has to negotiate is remarkable because it should be a reasonably simple thing to stop.

I’m not saying removing ‘Stacking’ would completely eliminate the risk of cars merging into one another in pit lane, but taking the mess of 50% of the field scattered throughout 400 metres of pit lane would make it much easier to feed people in and out of traffic.  

The crazy thing is, I don’t think the rule would be overly difficult to write:

If one car (of the two that share a boom) is being serviced in the working lane, the other car using the same boom must not slow down (from the 40km/hr pit lane speed limit) in an effort to create space to make time for the other cars stop to be completed.

If they get to their boom and it is still occupied, they need to drive past, rather than ‘stacking’ by parking in the lane.

If they slow down in the lane or end up stacking, they cop a major penalty.

With the telemetry, driver tracking, and on-board cameras carried by every car it wouldn’t be hard to police.

Too many times we’ve seen cars crashing into each other, or being significantly delayed, because of course everyone dives into pit lane at once to take the opportunity to pit under yellow.

One day it’s going to cause a massive crash and someone in the lane, be it a crew member or volunteer official, is going to be hurt.

Supercars have worked so hard to ensure the on-track product is as clean and fair as it can be but it’s a constant irritation that pit lane continues to be allowed to be so messy, and that it continues to occur time and time again.  

Closing the pit lane is another option – but I am not actually in favour of that: I don’t mind the strategic variations that grabbing a fortunate Safety Car offers up.

But if they are only going to have one boom for two cars, then until they find a way to Stop the Stack, it’s going to be an issue that keeps raising its ugly head.

FOOT, MEET MOUTH

PENRITE Erebus Racing have been fairly vocal about their distaste for the mixed-tyre racing we’ve seen in Supercars recently, so there is a real sense of irony that it was exactly one of those races that delivered young Anton de Pasquale his first Supercars win.

Tyres or otherwise, a result like this was going to come from Anton at some point in the journey, it was just a matter of time. That first win is always a breakthrough in a young drivers career and if it gives him anything, it will be more belief that he can do it again.

CRAZY RESULTS

Courtney second for Tickford. Pye third for Team 18, with his teammate fourth! Chris Pither fifth!

And at the other end of the results sheet, McLaughlin only 20^th, with Whincup three spots further up the road and van Gisbergen only 11^th. Quite remarkable.

RACE CONTROL

CRAIG BAIRD continues to deliver with sensible calls in race control, taking their time to decide the penalty and then the appropriate response that matches the crime, rather than just handing out drive through penalties willy-nilly. For all the drama the first 10 laps offered, it’s hard to argue about any of the penalties dished out from today’s affair.

SVG absolutely deserved the whack he got for fencing Percat, while McLaughlin’s restart infringement was cut and dry. Kelly’s dangerous re-entry and the pit lane dramas (See above) also warranted their penalties and the penalties fit their respective crimes, in our opinion.

The smooth and measured voice of stand-in race director James Taylor has also been a highlight of recent rounds – it’s like he’s been running the show for years.

BJR

IT WAS well covered in the broadcast, but we don’t know what Brad Jones Racing has done to deserve their lack of Darwin luck of late. Two cars ended up in the same fence last year, while this year it was turn six that claimed three of their four cars; Brad’s day only salvaged by a very solid drive by Jack Smith to 12^th on fresh tyres at the end of the day.

Two cars in 10 last year. 3 in turn six this year? What will next week being BJR? All four in the acres of runoff at Turn 1, perhaps? Perish the thought..

PENT UP FRUSTRATIONS

Perhaps four weeks out of the seat, and especially the one-week delay to Darwin’s festivities, was too much or our drivers? Everyone said after Sydney that the eSeries had actually helped the driving standards – but that is three months past now so today was much more situation normal. You feel for the teams on the tools after today..

TIME CERTAIN..

A FINAL thought for time certainty, the most hated phrase on the internet and in many Supercars fans minds as well. It perhaps denied a thrilling finish as Anton and Courtney, on Softs, may have run out of rubber at the end of the race – but then again, on account of the race being on free-to-air and Channel 10 this year (a rare thing these days), getting it done just before their 5pm news will have been rather good for the all important TV ratings.