MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA TO REVIEW SHOOTOUT REGULATIONS

Motorsport Australia has vowed to revisit the Supercars Championship Top 10 Shootout regulations after Shane van Gisbergen’s timed lap on Saturday was compromised.

Van Gisbergen was preparing his flying lap when the driver in front Zane Goddard missed the brake pedal during his flyer and ploughed into a tyre barrier.

Still on his warm-up lap, van Gisbergen was told to slow down by officials.

Just before van Gisbergen was going to enter the pitlane Goddard was able to refire his ZB Commodore and entered the lane, prompting race control to tell van Gisbergen to go ahead with his lap.

The incident prevented the Triple Eight Race Engineering driver from adequately warming his tyres, hindering performance on the flying lap.

The championship leader could only qualify in sixth, 0.605s off Anton de Pasquale’s pole time.

Motorsport Australia released a statement explaining that despite the controversy, correct procedure was followed.

“Shane van Gisbergen’s out lap was impacted by an incident on the final corner involving Zane Goddard’s car prior to van Gisbergen commencing his timed lap,” the statement said.

“Van Gisbergen was required to complete his timed lap once the track was cleared.

“While this decision was made late in car #97’s out lap, the correct procedure was followed by Race Control as the rules are currently written.”

However, the organisation also agreed that the outcome was far from ideal for the integrity of a competitive qualifying session.

“Motorsport Australia will now work closely with Supercars and the Supercars Commission to determine the best process to be implemented for future Top 10 Shootouts to minimise a drivers timed lap being compromised by a similar incident,” Motorsport Australia concluded.

Triple Eight did not hide their frustration toward the decision on race day.

Team owner Roland Dane contended that van Gisbergen should not have been forced to complete his flying lap immediately.

“In my opinion Race Control got it wrong,” Dane said.

“It’s meant to be a fair competition and that wasn’t, as any driver knows, that was a compromised out lap, it doesn’t help you to shootout lap.

“You’ve just got to make the right call. I think it was clear that Goddard was struggling to get the car started and going again.”

Dane also believed that van Gisbergen would have qualified in a far better position if not for the ruling.

“Shane certainly would have been three or four positions further up, if he hadn’t had his out lap compromised,” he said.

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