timwheatley.org

This article was written by Cristopher Revilla.

“Despite Earnhardt’s death and the subsequent controversy regarding the circumstances surrounding his demise, NASCAR seems to be acting more in favor of promoting this type of racing at Daytona and Talladega than ever before.”

THE CAUSE

Since there was pretty much no open wheel activity on Speed Channel apart from the Star Mazda series delayed race, the big show of the first weekend of October apart from the ALMS Petit Le Mans event on Saturday was Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup UAW-Ford 500 race at Talladega.

As much as I’m a fan for open wheel racing, I have also been a fan of NASCAR over the years, with my first race being the Budweiser 500 at Dover in 1990 when Derrike Cope overtook Rusty Wallace to win his second of the year after that great inherited win at the Daytona 500 that February. From then on I became a fan and tried my darnedest in order not to miss a race.

The downside of life back then was that it was difficult to get scheduling information, another thing as well is that I was only eight years old and thought that all NASCAR races were broadcasted by ESPN, so I missed the race broadcasts from TBS and ABC. I missed the 1991 Daytona 500 which I always yearned to watch live, but as fate turned out I never did until 1998 when I returned to the US after going back to my home in Mexico at the end of 1991 (Mexico wasn’t into NASCAR back then unless you had cable and had a bit of luck).

Whatever NASCAR races I could catch I tuned in on, I immediately started drawing out my favorite drivers; Rusty Wallace and ultimately as well, the late great Dale Earnhardt.

I loved how those guys raced, how they thrusted their cars into those ovals with fierce determination and virtually no fear. However, thanks to my handicap of not knowing when and at what channel other than ESPN would be broadcasting the races, I missed the races at Talladega as well as three out of the four races at Daytona in 1990 and 1991. I did manage to catch the Pepsi 400 at Daytona and have my first taste of “restrictor plate” racing.

I was ignorant due to my age what the term meant, but the racing was exciting and also very scary, especially when all of a sudden Darrell Waltrip and Joe Ruttman tangled on the backstretch and flew into the grass where Waltrip flipped violently six times, coming to rest on his left side.

It was a crash that scared me to death, but when the news came that he was all right although badly beat up, I gave out a sigh of relief. Ultimately, Bill Elliot won the race, much to my displeasure at the time.

After my six year hiatus, I returned to the US and in time to watch my first ever Daytona 500. It was a blast, not only because finally I saw Dale Earnhardt win his first ever Daytona 500, which gave me a lot of joy, but it finally got a good dose of restrictor plate racing.

From then on, over the years of watching races at Daytona and Talladega and watching past races there thanks to re-runs on cable, I have what I see as a good opinion regarding the issue.

It wasn’t that apparent from the beginning of restrictor plates back in 1988 that there would be a problem, due to the fact that the auto racing technology wasn’t as advanced as it is now, but the signs were always there.

With the packs of cars streaming across the track in almost tight-knit fashion, it only took one mistake or one mechanical failure at the wrong place in order to cause a multi-car pileup that would take out half if not most of the cars in that pack.

As the cars became more aerodynamically perfect, the drivers had to run closer to others, simply to give themselves a chance at keeping up.

The audiences may like it, I have to admit that I do too, but the drivers have openly expressed their hatred; at least the grand majority have.

Mark Martin has been the most openly and most vocally opposed to the plate racing, especially in the autumn weekend at Talladega when he was taken out in a spectacular 8-car crash which saw Michael Waltrip get hit by Martin in the rear quarter panel, causing Waltrip to flip spectacularly and roll over twice, landing right side up with his rear end-housing hanging by a thread.

Martin afterwards voiced his displeasure: “I just want to say this: The fans are the only ones that can do something about this. No one else can — the drivers can’t, the owners can’t and NASCAR’s not going to do anything about it. I doubt if the fans can, either.”

Jimmie Johnson, whom everyone pointed at for starting the wreck after he nerfed Elliot Sadler into a spin, triggering the crash was also very vocal about it: “It’s real easy to sit on your couch and point fingers and say so-and-so did something wrong. But until you’re out there in these cars and seeing all the near misses, it’s not worth forming an opinion. All anybody can say is, This is Talladega.“

There was more finger-pointing towards Ryan Newman after he caused the second and biggest crash when he bumped Casey Mears in the tri-oval and triggered another multi-car accident which sent Scott Riggs hard into the wall and on his roof, flipping violently before coming to rest right side up. Finally, when the dust settled, there was now more time for journalists and drivers (notably Jimmy Spencer) to point the fingers at Newman and Johnson for “stupid driving” and for making dumb use of the already controversial “bump drafting” tactic. Jeff Gordon even said that it was all on the driver’s hands and it depended on them on whether or not these accidents would happen. This despite the fact that bump drafting had been around plate racing pretty much since plate racing was introduced.

Once the grand majority of drivers and journalists ended their quest of pointing fingers, the comments that most stayed in my mind were Martin’s and Johnson’s. It’s up to the fans to do something about this, it’s easy to point fingers when in reality, when you’re in those cars doing 190MPH and in tight packs, it’s a lot harder not to run over somebody’s bumper, especially when someone else is actually behind you.

But all of this has a root cause, and once you examine the root cause and the amount of circumstances that have built up over the past 18 years, a different picture starts panning out, a picture that many drivers and journalists either have forgotten about or are just too dumb or too blind in their quest to point blame to actually see it.

That picture is: The cars have become too aerodynamically bound. When you combine this with the 400HP reduction that the restrictor plate places over the engine, you got a recipe for disaster. The thing is we have only realized how serious this problem is in recent times because the aerodynamic technology has advanced so much in the last 10 years.

Now that several former F1 aerodynamicists have jumped ship and have traveled to America to help teams on their quest to built more aero smooth cars, the underlying problem is that once you get into the high-speed “plate tracks” like Daytona and Talladega, then suddenly drafting is pretty much everything. But I’m getting ahead of myself; lets go through a bit of a historic reminder.

April 12, 1987 was the year in which the restrictor plate era was suddenly born when in the Winston 500 at Talladega Bobby Allison suffered a cut right rear tire which sent his rear-end off the ground and into the air and hitting the fence, which ripped apart and ripped both ends of Bobby’s car to shreds. Allison emerged unhurt, but the fence suffered severe damage and the race had to be red-flagged in order to repair it.

From then on, NASCAR was scared, probably not for the drivers, but for those it really cared about, the paying fan.

The restrictor plates were introduced in order to keep speeds down by cutting the amount of horsepower in half (800HP to 400-450HP).

This wasn’t the first time restrictor plates were used. In the late 1960’s, Ford came up with its Talladega model and Chrysler built the famous Superbird. These were awesome, high-speed, ultra-powerful cars built with the aim of beating the competition, and each other. NASCAR put plates on those cars to slow their speeds down, and that, along with the Arab Oil Embargo of the 70’s, led to their demise.

In contrast, this was the first time that restrictor plates had been applied to all the cars, not just the faster ones. Everybody in the garage knew that this was a bad idea, since all it would lead was into forming the field into tight packs of cars and with drivers having no chance to pull away from each other causing the risks of wrecking to be greatly increased. But in the interests of safety (and that was a weak word back then), they decided to go along with it.

At first it didn’t seem a problem at all; take for example the 1990 Daytona 500, and watch how Dale Earnhardt literally motored away from the rest of the field for a large part of the race. However, the “Big One” was still there and did not go away, as later in the year during the Firecracker 400 at Daytona (again), Derrike Cope, Greg Sacks and Richard Petty tangled in the tri-oval and triggered a multi-car pileup that took out half the field.

Still, the aerodynamics in the cars were not fully developed, which meant that after a number of laps, the fastest cars would be able to pull away and leave the rest behind. There was a problem regarding the safety issue however: it was still on diapers in those days, and the roll-cages and sheet-metal were pretty much the best that NASCAR could muster up besides the safety-illusion that the plates would slow speeds down in order to avoid catastrophic crashes.

Ultimately, as the years went by, it slowly but surely became apparent that the restrictor plates were starting to create massive side-effects, because with the restrictor plates, the drivers weren’t able to distance themselves from the competition unless they had a much better engine and a much faster car, so with the close competition, the risk of a multi-car crash was still there.

Worst of all, despite the fact that the restrictor plate was introduced to counter-arrest the problem of cars getting airborne at high speeds, there were still cars taking off the ground regardless.

Richard Petty flipped badly at the Daytona 500 in 1988 at the exit of Turn 4, causing damage to the fencing, not to mention himself. There were plenty of multi-car crashes and tumbles over the next 5 years but still, there was no blame placed on restrictor plate racing even though it was apparent that it was the main cause for these packs of cars.

The use of restrictor plates had so far, done nothing to stop the type of crashes it was meant to.

But in those early days using the plates, the packs weren’t too big and the cars would eventually spread out due to the bulkiness of the cars. So instead, they blamed every accident on either driver error or equipment failure, just like they do today. Still, the problems didn’t go away.

This continued until the defining moment came in which we finally realized that restrictor plates were totally useless. In the 1993 DieHard 500 at Talladega, a multi-car crash at Turn 1 not only severely injured Stanley Smith, but also sent Jimmy Horton tumbling up and over the wall and off the race track. 62 laps later, Neil Bonnett flipped spectacularly in the tri-oval and hit the fencing hard with the rear end, destroying the fencing and his car in the process. The fencing took an hour to be repaired, and once again, the fears and questions came up.

But NASCAR did nothing to solve the actual problem. Sure, they fenced the entire Talladega track and Daytona as well to prevent cars from flying off the race track, but once again, was this for the protection of the drivers? Nothing was being said about the apparent uselessness of restrictor plates after this last catalogue of incidents, not many people even saw that the restrictor plates were the cause, giving drivers no way out of the big wrecks.

NASCAR still readily maintained that a car would be launched into the grandstand if it were going at higher speeds and they didn’t want another incident like Bobby Allison’s or worse.

Hello? Didn’t Bonnett just do the same thing as Allison had six years back, only this time with restrictor plates? Still, they paid no attention to that fact and concentrated themselves on developing the roof-flaps for the 1994 season.

The roof-flaps were a really great idea, but didn’t solve the problem entirely and are only effective to a point, usually depending on the angle of movement or whether the car is being pushed backwards by another, something likely to happen in large packs when a car turns around.

By 1995 the aerodynamic issue developed as the aero packages were more perfected by the teams and at Daytona and Talladega, as the pack of cars got bigger during the race, at some points formed by almost the entire 43-car field, the danger of huge accidents became more and more likely.

Into 1996, three years after Horton’s fly-over and subsequent fencing off of the non-spectator areas of the track, in the Winston 500 at Talladega Ricky Craven tried to out-do Jimmy Horton in a 14-car crash in turn one.

Thankfully the car managed to bounce off the fencing and back on the track, the crash however stopped the race for 1 hour for fencing repairs.

The crashes and tumbles just kept on coming over the years despite the best efforts from the roof flaps to keep the cars on the ground, but sometimes they couldn’t.

In the year 2000, at the Craftsman Truck Series inaugural Daytona 250, former Daytona 500 winner Geoffrey Bodine hit the wheel of Rob Morgan whom at first had hit Kurt Busch. Bodine’s left front hit Morgan’s right front, which launched the truck front-end first into the fencing and he almost ripped it off in a massive crash which saw his truck disintegrate all along the front stretch coming into turn one, taking ten other trucks with him. Miraculously, Bodine survived thanks to the sturdy roll cage. With multiple fractures he would even do a brief comeback over the years. Nine spectators were injured and the race had to be stopped in order to repair the fencing, which took almost an hour.

Later in the Busch Series NAPA 300 race, Jeff Green was punted in the tri-oval so fast that the roof-flaps had little time to react as his rear-end started taking off and it looked like he was going to reach the fencing as Bodine had. He landed on his roof and tumbled back on his wheels precious meters before hitting it.

At the end of the 2000 season and during the 2001 season, the use of roof strips and wicker-bills on the rear spoilers in the Cup Cars made plate racing a lot closer, passing a lot more possible, and the stakes a lot higher.

It was a miracle that there was no big wrecks in the Winston 500 at Talladega at the end of the year, but then nobody said it wasn’t possible. It was possible that if none of the forthy three men on the track made an error during the race taking over three hours, we could all see a clean race. The 1997 Winston 500 had ran without wrecks and it was one of the most exciting races of the season regardless, but for the drivers it had been an inch from a wreck for the entire event.

“NASCAR needs to decide if the fans that flock to Daytona and Talladega are worth more than the drivers, who end up on their roofs or underneath their crumpled and beat-up machines, praying that they don’t get injured and much less killed.”

EFFECT

But although clean races are possible if nobody makes a mistake, the drivers are unfortunately human, unfortunately they will make mistakes.

In the 2001 Daytona 500, the race which saw Dale Earnhardt get killed on the last lap, Robby Gordon hit Ward Burton, he nudged Tony Stewart, causing Stewart’s car to spin, take off from its rear-end and pretty much come within spitting distance of the backstretch fencing. Gordon’s car however, still in contact with Stewart, kept hiss car from doing so and rather sent him tumbling across the track as twenty-three other cars piled into each other.

This crash and subsequent multi-car crashes in the Busch and Cup series at Talladega (where Johnny Sauter also flipped and twenty-seven cars got taken out) in the spring meant this was already the worst year ever in terms of the financial loss, not even considering the loss of Dale Earnhardt into it.

Daytona and at Talladega again at the end of the year (where Bobby Labonte got on his roof in the last lap in yet another multi-car crash), put an end to the roof strips on Winston-soon-to-be-Nextel Cup. It was also banned in the Busch series but it was reinstated two years later,

Then in 2003, NASCAR introduced its common template formula in order to equalize the cars’ performance, which undoubtedly ended up piling on the problem even more so due to the aerodynamic focus on the templates. A number of multi-car crashes and flips followed in the ensuing years and despite the fact that the “bump drafting” technique had been around forever, it became more notorious in 2004 as it became the point of blame for any and all incidents, the drivers seemingly forgetting that the reason they do it at all, is down to the restrictor plate.

In the 2005 ARCA Remax Series’ Advance Discount Autoparts 300 at Daytona, Clair Zimmerman lost control of his car in the tri-oval, took off from its rear-end and hit the fencing square on, ripping a big hole in it and injuring a female spectator in the process. Fencing repairs took 45 minutes.

Several laps later, in a huge multi-car crash that saw Todd Kluever flip wildly and Dan Shaver and Billy Venturini sustaining injuries, there were also several cars flipping over and almost ripping off the fence in the backstretch. The race was stopped short.

The only reason why there weren’t any serious injuries has been because of the safety measures that suddenly started appearing by 2001 in the aftermath of Adam Petty’s, Kenny Irwin’s and Tony Roper’s fatal crashes in the Busch and Craftsman Truck Series in 2000 respectively as well as Earnhardt’s fatal crash.

So, ultimately, what does this tell us? I don’t know what it tells NASCAR, the drivers and the journalists that cover the sport, but it tells me that restrictor plate racing is as much to blame if not totally to blame for all these crashes and tumbles.

Once aerodynamics started blooming and drafting started to become a big issue on the plate tracks, the packs of cars have gotten bigger, and the chances of drivers making a mistake and causing a huge crash or sending a car on its roof have pretty much multiplied by the tens when everyone is on the same part of the race track, forced to pack race.

Once you start checking this accident rundown that I just laid out, it seems easy to see that it doesn’t matter if the car is going 230MPH or just 190MPH, it is still enough speed to send somebody on his roof.

As a reference, airplanes take off at less than 60MPH and although they’re shaped for flight, a racing car, designed for forward downforce, will create lift when travelling backwards.

With these packs of cars, how can you not expect a driver in those crammed up circumstances to commit the tiniest of mistakes in order to cause a multi-car crash or a tumble? The cars are so stacked up together that drivers aren’t able to motor away from each other without help.

If they lose the draft, they’re left in the dust. The drivers are pretty much morphed into a bunch of 3,400 lb. beasts locked in 200MPH cages with almost no control over their cars.

They can’t put distance on each other, they can’t take their eyes off their mirrors for one second and the moment they either get a flat or suffer a mechanical failure or simply accidentally run into somebody, it’s all over and they’re in it, along with all those who didn’t make an error, running behind them.

Ultimately, they’re just a bunch of sitting ducks out there, and based on this, it’s only a matter of time before stress, or tiredness causes one of them to make a mistake. How can they not do it in those packs?

It’s a lot harder not to make a mistake in those conditions than making one. Hence why nowadays, I just cringe when journalists and drivers themselves blame other drivers for starting the crash. It’s a lot easier for Jimmy Spencer to slam Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman for causing those two big crashes rather than track down the root cause of that problem, and the problem is restrictor plates and aerodynamics.

Now, I guess I’ll get bashed for the simple reason that – to quote Robin Miller – “I still have all my teeth” and because, unlike Mr. Miller, I have never stepped into one of those race cars (and it’s true, I still have all my teeth and have never sat in a race car). After listening to the grand majority of drivers and journalists and their sheepish gripes, I suppose that they’re not only missing teeth, but rather common sense as well. Even the king of Talladega Dale Earnhardt would make regular comment of “…this ain’t racin” when he retired from races at Talladega.

So, I have explained the problem of why restrictor plates and aerodynamics are the root-cause for all this, so what’s the solution?

The drivers, journalists and old-time fanatics whom obviously have more experience than a 23-year old brat like me have come with the following solutions.

Why not:
Ban bump drafting?
Ban drivers that bump draft in the corners?
Take away the steel reinforcements on the front and back-ends of the cars in so when they bump-draft the front-end gets crumpled?
Put a spike in the bumpers of the cars so when one bump-drafts it goes through the radiator?
Reduce the banking?

Never in my life have I heard such nonsense, especially from experienced drivers and journalists; they focus on the scraps rather than the loaf.

No, the solution is: ban restrictor plates! Ban the restrictor plates, get rid of common templates, and reduce the aerodynamics to at least 40 to 60%. Allow manufacturers like Ford, Chevy or Dodge to make their own templates of their own cars.

Yes, there’s nothing “stock” about a NASCAR stock car, but there can be if you allow for the manufacturers to make their own templates. Yes, the speeds will climb up, but I rather have them race above 200MPH and see the drivers be more capable of motoring away from each other and have more control of their cars, than seeing them all bunched up like a pack of buffalos waiting for the moment in which one buffalo falls and the others pile in on top of him.

If you reduce the aerodynamics on the cars, you make the cars less susceptible to drafting and they will easily pull away from each other and depend more on engine power and skill.

It may also help eventually in reducing speeds due to the cars being more bulkier and less able to cut the air more smoothly. Who knows?

The solutions are there, but I doubt that NASCAR will have the balls and the brains to do it, let alone the drivers support it. Why?

Because it’s not convenient for NASCAR since many of the fans that attend Daytona and Talladega aren’t necessarily there for the racing, but rather to see 43 cars smash into each other or see a couple of cars sliding on their roofs and tumbling and disintegrating their cars. Why?

Because it’s that kind of action that drives TV ratings and it’s those kinds of things to which audiences pay for. Not only that, because NASCAR have also been masters in the use of the “fear-factor.” I can bet that in 1993 when Bonnett holed the fencing, they knew that restrictor plates were a bad idea and a useless concept. But they saw that it attracted audiences to Daytona and Talladega since having the cars racing in packs made for some nail-biting action.

Rather than taking the plates off, they hammered the audiences and more so the drivers about the fear of doing so: that the high speeds would have cars launching and going over the fences and into the grandstands.

The drivers and the audiences ate it up, even though it was the biggest pile of rubbish one has ever heard, as all evidence pointed to the contrary.

Of course, the masses are a lot easier to convince than the drivers and teams since over the years, drivers and team owners very discreetly have voiced their displeasure about plate racing, but they don’t say anymore than hints because bad-mouthing NASCAR would not be a smart idea since you can get fined or smeared or simply laughed upon.

Even Mark Martin, the most vocal critic of restrictor plate racing has had to watch his words whenever he speaks out against restrictor-plate racing and has to sidetrack reporters with dumb solutions that even he himself cringes when he says them because he knows its rubbish. With these fear-inducing restraints, how can the people that know better than us voice against it?

Now, when NASCAR has exploded onto the scene even more since the 2001 death of Dale Earnhardt’s and the subsequent controversy regarding the circumstances surrounding his demise, NASCAR seems to be acting more in favor of promoting this type of racing at Daytona and Talladega than ever before. Why?

Why else would NASCAR go for the roof strips and wicker-billed spoilers in late 2000 and in time for 2001? It wasn’t until several multi-car wrecks and huge outcry from the drivers that NASCAR threw that out for 2002, at least from the Cup series.

Once again with the common templates, the problems have worsened up once again, the cars are now so equal and too aerodynamically perfect, in essence taking away whatever difference there was when it came to manufacturer competition.

The result is that compounded with the plates and aero, it is in one way or another, a recipe for disaster. The winner of a race at Daytona or Talladega is no longer based on being the best driver, having the best engine or the best body shop, it all depends on whether you avoid other people’s accidents along with who drives into your rear bumper.

I used to find it hard to understand when people highlited the parallel’s between NASCAR and ‘Professional’ Wrestling, but now I have begun to realise in some ways NASCAR has a questionable history of judgment calls over clear-cut rules and regulations.

But then I realize that there’s actually a much more deeper, sinister point once you start thinking about it from a different perspective. NASCAR’s racing at Daytona and Talladega have a lot in common with wrestling in regards that people pay to see guys get beaten and banged and get injured and bloody, with the razor-sharp chance of getting killed. They may not admit it, but it’s obvious that it is the reason why some of them go there.

Like Greg Biffle and several others pointed out last weekend: People pay to see drivers get beaten the tar out of them; kind of like “Rollerball on wheels,” or more to the point, like the Roman Coliseum.

I sincerely want to ask Brian France, Mike Helton and all those people that run NASCAR: is that the type of spectacle you want to present for your audiences at these two tracks? Wouldn’t you rather think in a more sanely and moral manner in regard to motor racing ethics, and instead provide an exciting and safe spectacle in which the audiences can actually be genuinely entertained?

Do you want to provide blood and destruction, or rather provide exciting competition where everybody truly fights and races for the win?

Now, I’m human enough and honest enough to admit that I’m sort of a crash junkie, and the people that know me know about it very well. But, I still have enough common sense to see what is right and what is wrong. The fact that I like crashes doesn’t necessary mean that I have to accept such atrocity from NASCAR. In fact, it sickens me that they make it look like a lose-lose situation for the drivers and teams, for the sake of TV ratings and audience revenues.

With the media consistently accepting the show NASCAR gives them, spending their time pointing the finger at the “ones to blame” for the multi-car accidents and tumbles, as well as their constant whining and pondering of inept solutions instead of realistic ones, nothing else is being put on the table. Or are they scared of challenging NASCAR?

Am I the only one that was suspicious when the excellent Speed TV debate-show “Pit Bull” featuring all the major NASCAR journalists was cancelled, and replaced by the weakling, do-what-you’re-told show “Backseat Drivers” which featured none of the independent and outside opinions that “Pit Bull” provided? Think about that.

In conclusion, NASCAR has to really take a long hard look at itself, and wonder whether the revenues justify the toll, whether the ends justify the means, and whether the hundreds of thousands of fans that flock to Daytona and Talladega are worth more than the drivers ending on their roofs or underneath their crumpled and beat-up machines and praying that they don’t get injured and much less killed.

There is a cause and there is an effect. NASCAR are walking a kind of tightrope that is bordering very dangerously on the reckless disregard for human life at the expense of entertainment.

The fuse has been lit, and it has been so for the last ten years once technology changed. It’s now up to NASCAR to put it out before it explodes and we don’t see any more racing at Daytona and Talladega.

I love the racing in those tracks and I tell you that the last thing that I want is for there to be no racing on those tracks, but something needs to be done regarding this issue, fast, because ultimately plate racing combined with aerodynamics is a recipe for disaster, it can’t be said enough.

Until the drivers are given control of their cars and are given the power to drive away from one another and the manufacturers produce the body shapes the way they know how to, giving us genuine racing the way it is meant to be, the only thing that it will come out from this mess will be disaster after disaster until one ends up being worse than the other and who knows what consequences it will bring.

The chance that NASCAR has for the first time in it’s history to do something right with regards to Daytona and Talladega is about to pass by. If they fail for another year, make changes that do not solve the problem or radically change how things work, it shows a lack of confidence. Is NASCAR too weak to cope with changes that stop this type of racing?

Hopefully in 2006 we will finally get on with our lives and enjoy the drivers racing at Daytona and Talladega the way it was meant to be.

Hosting it’s first international motorsport event in years, Eastern Creek would give the drivers a sense of excitement and fear all at once as not many had experienced it’s carefully placed curves. The circuit used for Australian V8 and motorcycle competition included a section where the cars became airbourne!

The frightening flat-out first turn, a blindingly fast 160mph left hand turn would by the end of the weekend be remembered for all the wrong reasons. As someone used to seeing cars treat turns like that like they don’t exist, seeing cars slide and drift around a 160mph turn was a dream for many fans.

A new rule was announced at the event. Team Brazil had tested on the circuit with Nelson Piquet Jr in another type of car, as the organisers saw this as cheating they set a non-testing (in any car) rule.

In any case, with France winning four of the last six, all eyes were on them for the weekend…

PRACTICE 1

With Nelson Piquet Jr’s ‘test session’ before the event, his track knowledge fresh in his mind, he dominated the first practice session at Eastern Creek, setting a 1 minute 19.26 second lap. His time was over 1 second quicker than Mexican driver Salvador Duran’s time, who again showed great pace. Other than Mexico’s effort, no great surprises were to be found in the timings from the first open practice on Friday. The other drivers were unable to reply to Brazil’s times until Saturday when conditions would improve, rain slowing the drivers towards the end of the session.

Nelson Piquet Jr said of his lap: “It was a good lap. The car seemed very good and I did a good lap with no traffic. We did a qualifying simulation and just went for it and it was good. Eastern Creek is quite a good circuit, and it’s not that easy.”

Team China wrecked their main car in the first practice session after hitting the wall hard. The team would be able to race using their spare car but would have to pay $80,000 for a new one before the next event.

PRACTICE 2

With wet track conditions again at the start of the session, no spectacular times were seen in the second Friday session.

France however had shown their hand, using 21 laps to set a 1 minute 21.03 second lap in drying conditions. Lapierre said: “It was difficult this morning with the conditions but we are getting better and I think we should have a good day tomorrow. I enjoy this track the first corner is great. The track is bumpy and it is easy to make mistakes here so I think the race will be very interesting.”

PRACTICE 3

Brazil were on-top again on Saturday morning, with clear conditions though many teams closed in on Nelson Piquet Jr. After 15 laps he had set a 1 minute 19.47 second lap infront of Malaysia and Great Britain. Australia, the home nation, grabbed sixth and New Zealand ninth.

Some teams chose not to enter the session, saving tyres for qualifying.

QUALIFYING 1

The main story of qualifying would be tyre usage. With most teams saving just two sets the correct selection of tyre at the right time would be extremely important.

As the session began, Lebanon were first out along with Australia and Pakistan. Australia pushed hard, grabbing provisional pole from Lebanon.

Germany, who were on a good lap, were slowed by Russia on their lap, but still managed to set a time within a few tenths of pole. Meanwhile Mexico set a new pole time of 1 minute 19.87 seconds as Japan slotted into position a long way down the grid.

Great Britain managed to grab second on the provisional grid on used tyres with 7 minutes to go but just 1 minute later Netherlands took it away again. Elsewhere on circuit local flyers New Zealand went into provisional pole as Bryan Herta also set a time for Team USA.

Portugal set a provisional fourth place time with four minutes to go, elsewhere on track both Switzerland and France set superb times, France taking provisional pole with 1 minute 18.88 seconds.

Moments later, Brazil came around on used tyres and slotted into provisional fourth infront of Portugal. The last car to set a time in the session was Ireland, they started moments after Brazil finished their lap, but could only secure a provisional sixteenth.

Surprise of the session once again was Adam Khan, who finished with tenth place. Austria failed to set a time in the session.

QUALIFYING 2

With dark clouds approaching in the distance, cars queued on the pit exit awaiting the green flag on the session. Australia were again out early with China and Lebanon. Lebanon took pole but Italy instantly took it away with a 1 minute 19 second lap, making him fastest on aggregate.

With just under 8 minutes to go, Great Britain took provisional pole from Italy and USA pushed up into sixth on old tyres. Mexico took provisional pole moments later but with 3 minutes to go France took it away with a 1 minute 18 second lap. Switzerland went into second place and Pakistan to tenth on aggregate moments later.

With just three cars left to set a time now, Netherlands threw the car around the Australian circuit, getting all four wheels off the circuit over the airbourne section. Jos Verstappen’s effort put him into fourth.

Under 1 minute to go, Ireland began their lap, but with a slow lap in Q1 his 1 minute 19 second lap only put him tenth overall, but with a good lap in Q3 or Q4 that could change.

France looked dominant so far, having put in two laps in the 1 minute 18 second bracket. The driving in both sessions had so far been spectacular, with drivers experienced in F1, Indycar and Champ Cars both powersliding the car in the same turns. Save of the session went to the sixteen year old Indian driver who got completely sideways but managed to get in line before his next turn.

QUALIFYING 3

As session three began, Lebanon were again out infront of most cars, closely followed by India and Italy.

Few drivers improved position due to their use of old tyres until Mexico came around with 8 minutes to go, Salvador Duran moving into fifth position. Malaysian driver Alex Yoong, one of the few who had raced on the circuit previously, put himself into fourth just a few moments later.

Team USA failed to improve their position on their Q3 run as elsewhere Robbie Kerr put Great Britain nearer the front with what would be the second fastest time of the session, a 1 minute 19.02 second lap.

With just four minutes to go, Team France went out but were unable to set a quick time. Portugal were on circuit at the same time and after setting a 1 minute 18.58 second lap moved up to second place provisionally.

As expected at the end of Q2, a big improvement came with seconds left in the session. Ireland setting another quick time and moving up to fifth place overall.

QUALIFYING 4

The weather thankfully having decided not to interrupt during the previous sessions and not looking like it would in Q4, the fourth session should have been a leisure filled affair. It did have a frantic start however with Lebanon, China and Australia queued up awaiting the green flag.

With New Zealand and Australia cringingly close so far in qualification, Australia’s time would be extremely important. The home nations rivalry was expressed beautifully when watching how hard Will Davidson pushed on his Q4 qualifying lap. He managed to push himself into a ninth place provisionally. Just four minutes to go and New Zealand crossed the line, grabbing fourteenth place overall. Where would they end up? The locals were very interested.

The top twelve times in the fourth session were all within 1 second of Switzerland who set fastest time. Many teams pushed very hard but few improved their position even if they did improve their aggregate time. The main battle had been settled, with Australia beating New Zealand, New Zealand having qualified on aggregate right behind their rivals.

France and Pakistan did not set a time in the fourth session, France choosing not to bother with their unbeatable times.

“I am happy with this second place because we were struggling in free practice. We improved quite a bit with some new tyres on the car, we still have to improve, but we will keep working to catch A1 Team France.” - Alvaro Parente.

SPRINT RACE

The cars lined up side by side for the start extremely closely. With a flat out turn one a good start would be very important. For the sprint race, pole position was on the inside dirty line and many believed this would be a penalty to Switzerland.

From the start, all the cars battled side by side, racing three and four wide. Into the first turn France swept infront of Switzerland and in turn two New Zealand, South Africa and Czech Republic ran off circuit, Czech Republic retiring from the event and bringing out the safety car. Switzerland’s start had been abysmal, having been forced to back off he dropped to fifth.

At the end of the first lap the full running order was France, Portugal, Brazil, Ireland, Great Britain, Switzerland, Netherlands, Malaysia, Canada, Italy, Mexico, Germany, Australia, Pakistan, Russia, Japan, Lebanon, Austria, China, New Zealand, USA, India and South Africa.

With Czech Republic’s car removed from the outside of turn one extremely slowly by the trackside workers, lots of time meant for racing was wasted trundling around behind the Safety Car. The race restarted with 17 laps to go.

Crossing the line with a substantial lead, France looked the class of the field. Meanwhile Italy and Mexico crossed the line and entered turn one side by side, both losing speed. Behind them, Germany closed up and decided to try to fit himself in a gap that didn’t exist, removing Mexico and himself from the event. Italy’s driver obviously had seen it all before, lifting off he simply watched the accident, avoided the debris and drove past.

The incident again brought out the safety car, except now the incredibly slow tractor that cleared a single car crash, slowly - had two to clear up now - slowly.

The race restarted with 13 laps to go. The fans so far had seen just seconds of racing on the start and restart, so as the race restarted again many simply hoped for a little maturity out on the circuit.

France and Portugal got away well infront of Brazil around the first turn. Around the lap Netherlands and Switzerland had a superb battle for position as towards the back New Zealand and South Africa attempted to repair their earlier errors. South Africa made contact with Lebanon however and retired at the end of the lap with suspension failure.

At the front France consistently pulled away and with 11 laps to go now looked ominously fast once again. Towards the back of the pack, New Zealand were doing the local crowd proud and passed Austria, moving into fifteenth.

On the next lap, New Zealand closed on Russia and Japan, putting huge pressure on Japan. The Russian car looked very unstable and Japan was obviously quicker.

With 9 laps to go Lebanon retired with a handling problem. Out infront France were still in a class of their own, the crowd were not worried though because Australia provided plenty of entertainment. The yellow car of the local team closed in on Italy, but having used all his power boosts the fans knew it may only be a mistake that would provide that chance they needed.

Nearer the front, Brazil had closed in on Portugal and looked a lot quicker around most turns. Portugal appeared to have a handling problem, sliding and drifting through the turns. Both drivers had used their boost allowance.

With 8 laps to go, France lead by a country mile infront of Portugal, Brazil, Ireland, Great Britain, Switzerland, Netherlands, Malaysia, Canada, Italy, Australia, Pakistan, Russia, Japan and New Zealand.

Now approaching 5 to go, the main battle on circuit was between Portugal and Brazil still. Portugal looked to have a real problem, locking up into every major turn and sliding out of them again. Brazil meanwhile looked to have an extremely stable car.

Elsewhere on circuit, China locked up and ran off circuit, letting USA through. Infront of them, New Zealand outbraked Japan into turn two, ending their battle at last.

Positions remained mostly static until the last lap. Although Brazil had been crawling and clawing at the back of Portugal he was unable to pass before the end.

On the final lap, Austria and Japan made contact and both spun into the gravel in turn two. Lauda in the Austrian car simply drove into the back of Japan, forcing USA to split the spinning cars and avoid them on the grass.

The race ended one lap early as the cars had spent enough time behind the Safety Car for the race to hit the thirty minute limit.

Possibly the worst A1 race so far and hopefully of the entire season, the slow recovery speed of the track workers along with a lack of maturity from a lot of drivers has hopefully shown only the worst we can expect from A1. Sure, crashes can be exciting to some people, but isn’t good racing better?

“The car was better than I thought it would be; as we were suffering from a lot of oversteer during practice. I had a good start, but it is a very difficult track and hard to overtake. I wasn’t in sixth gear for very long – only for a short time on the pit straight. I couldn’t get past Alvaro but think that if I had, I would have been a lot closer to Nicolas as there was quite a lot of speed left in the car.” - Nelson Piquet Jr.

FEATURE RACE

With the forty lap feature race approaching quickly, the teams who retired from the Sprint had plenty of work to do in order to give themselves a shot at making the grid.

One of the most experienced men on the grid, Bryan Herta, worked hard on his car setup in the minutes before the pitlane closed, taking multiple laps to work at it. Team USA had so far under performed in the series, having already made an impact Bryan looked to make his mark in the Feature.

All the cars got away on the formation lap cleanly, most of the cars making practice starts as they did so. After forming on the grid though the lights went out and Japan failed to get moving, after being pushed to the pits his team sent him out and into the race.

Heading into the first turn four cars wide, the drivers showed massive skill in simply avoiding each other. With France slipping down to third behind Portugal and Brazil, Ireland came flying down the outside into turn two but without enough room to brake ran off into the sand.

Before the end of the lap France had gotten back past Brazil and all through the pack close side by side battles were fought as all the starters still continued after a relatively clean start. Brazil wasn’t going to let France get away though and closed quickly back onto the speedy Frenchman.

Crossing the line at the end of lap one Portugal held a comfortable lead infront of a hard battling France, Brazil, Great Britain, Switzerland and Malaysia. Into the first turn Robbie Kerr closed in on Nelson Piquet Jr in the Brazilian car and very bravely went for a pass around the flat-out first turn.

With neither driver lifting off in the tight and extremely fast turn Great Britain driver Robbie Kerr dived once more to the inside into turn two, braking extremely late. Great Britain ran wide on the apex giving Piquet Jr a gap but when he tried to drive at it, Kerr moved over to take it away again.

As the drivers rounded the second lap battles continued throughout the field. Pakistan had managed to climb to tenth place and Australia to seventh as further near the front France and Great Britain closed in on the lead car. At the end of the lap Ireland pitted from eleventh place, followed in later by India, Germany, Canada and Austria. All teams had great stops and got out quickly.

With 37 laps to go the local fans were given something to shout about when Australia closed in on Malaysia in sixth place. Australia seemed a lot faster than Malaysia but also had Netherlands to worry about, Netherlands being right behind him.

At the end of the lap USA pitted, they had a great stop. Meanwhile out on circuit France was right on the back of Portugal. Great Britain had dropped back a little and had an equal gap back to Brazil.

With 36 laps to go, Portugal still held the lead infront of France, Great Britain, Brazil, Switzerland, Malaysia, Australia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia, Lebanon, Mexico, China, Czech Republic, Italy, USA, Ireland, Japan and Canada. France seemed visually faster than Portugal now but the performance of the race so far came from New Zealand who had come through most of the field to grab ninth.

One lap later Stephen Simpson lost control under power in turn seven and hit the wall, retiring from the race. Back in the pitlane Italy pulled into the garage to retire also. But, the big news on this lap was that Portugal had been found to have jumped the start and would have to serve a drive through penalty.

Two laps later with 33 to go, Brazil pitted. Out on track Germany ran off the circuit alone as elsewhere Czech Republic and Mexico ran into each other and dropped out of the race. Lebanon went off in sympathy. Brazil’s pitstop was a slow one, Nelson Piquet Jr losing at least five seconds.

At the end of the lap, with the two cars stopped in turn two, Portugal served their penalty but France stayed out, deciding to push for some fast laps. Netherlands and Switzerland pitted also, shortly before the Safety Car was deployed.

The deployment of the safety car meant that France had to pit at the end of the lap for best track position. Great Britain, Malaysia and all other major teams joined them in the pitlane, playing the Safety Car to their advantage. France got out of the pits infront of Great Britain, but the big surprise was Lebanon who stayed out to lead an A1 event for the first time.

The race would be restarted with Lebanon leading the event so they could grab some headlines. Lebanon’s position meant that those behind France could hold real hope of being able to catch France if Lebanon made things difficult. Although Lebanon hadn’t pitted, they knew that there would be a good chance of another Safety Car period.

When the race restarted Lebanon led around turn one but was passed by France into turn two quite easily. Great Britain had huge trouble getting past though as the entire field queued up waiting to pass.

Towards the end of the lap Great Britain made the pass, but as France had had a clear run of almost a lap it became obvious that the race was over if there wasn’t another Safety Car to bunch them up again.

Going on then with 27 to go Switzerland got past Lebanon on the main straight, but Lebanon held his ground as Malaysia and Netherlands made things difficult, both trying to pass through turn one. The three wide racing was a tense bit of action where most who were watching expected it to all end it tears but thanks to Yoong’s maturity it did not.

Half way around the lap Lebanon locked a wheel and ran wide for a few turns letting both Malaysia and Australia past seperately. Portugal managed to get by on the main straight thanks to the gap Australia left and into turn two Ireland was boxed in by Brazil who capitalized on Ireland’s reluctance to pass the now struggling Lebanon.

As the field screamed by the pits with 26 laps to go France held a five second lead infront of Great Britain and Switzerland. Bad news came for Brazil on this lap, after Nelson Piquet’s fantastic efforts behind the wheel his team had let him down, breaking pitlane regulations on the number equipment left out.

A lap later Lebanon made their pitstop. The running order with 24 to go was France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Portugal, Brazil, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, USA, Austria, Czech Republic, Pakistan, India, China, Japan and Lebanon.

Brazil served their penalty at the end of the lap, dropping behind Japan.

As Piquet trundled through the pits, Czech Republic assaulted Austria in yet another turn two incident out on the circuit. The incident again brought out the safety car, which was what Great Britain would have been hoping for to enable an attack on France. They had held a nine second lead.

The race restarted again with France getting a major advantage. Great Britain got a poor restart but the only change of position was with Ireland, who took New Zealand for ninth. At the end of the lap Italy rejoined the event, giving themselves a free testing session.

One lap after the restart China slid off in turn two, forced wide as Brazil passed him and locking his brakes to avoid running into India. China retired from the event, another victim of turn two.

Next time by Lebanon and Japan had a great battle, both not wanting to be the last classified runner. Japan won the battle for the short term, but one lap later after over correcting a big slide in the flat-out turn one Japan destroyed his car in a terrifying accident.

An immediate Safety Car was called and medical teams were on the scene very quickly with the Japanese driver. Shimoda had lost the back of the car in turn one and ran wide, as the run-off banked downwards from the track level air had got under the car and after flipping over Shimoda had hit the concrete wall at 165mph with the top of the nose and the roll hoop. The car was completely destroyed.

It took a very long time to remove Shimoda from the car, but doctors on the scene were quick to notify that things looked good. As the crews worked on the dazed Shimoda, Canada retired with suspension damage.

The race restarted with just under two minutes left. France again got a great restart and through the last two laps there really wasn’t an awful lot of overtaking. Local team New Zealand fought off Brazil on the last lap though and there was some excitement in a series of passes between them and the USA. France won the race of course infront of Great Britain and Switzerland and although it was a good race, it felt it had not provided the show it should have.

Now one third of the way through the first season of the A1 Grand Prix Championship, can anyone beat France? With rounds still to come around the world, at tracks unknown to many, we may see drivers like Neel Jani and Bryan Herta, if he continues to run the series, triumph at places like Laguna Seca.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

While the weekend showed in terms of racing a spectacle that makes many series look stale, it also showed what I hope will not be repeated. Not only was it spoilt by an alarming amount of failed overtaking manouvers, it was a circuit that really did not seem to suit this type of car and the series as a whole.

It is not the fault of the series that so many Safety Car periods were seen, it is the fault of the drivers. The drivers can drive clean, they have proven it on the manic Sprint Race rolling starts more than anything, so it may be a case of impatience, or perhaps a case of wanting to do all they can for their nation. Who knows?

I do not think there is anything wrong with turn one like many people believe. A flat out turn is only dangerous when something goes wrong. It is therefore important to ensure that when they do, everything is in place, such as tyre walls.

Had a tyre wall existed, would Shimoda not have flipped or rolled into the crowd? There need to be a lot of people thinking about a lot of things after that incident.

Why should any run off area be lower than the racing surface? Why not use gravity to help slow the cars? Bank run off areas up at a very small angle from the side of the racing surface, sit the spectators on the top of the bank where they can see things better.

Common sense?

Our images of the accident come from Chris Ormerod and Tony Rossini, Tony just supplying image seven (the larger image).

“In the end I’m just really happy to finish. There were so many safety cars that I’m very happy to finish where I did!” - Neel Jani.