Holdsworth expects ‘chaos’ from track change

A realigned barrier at Turn 7 has the potential to cause ‘chaos’ at the Superloop Adelaide 500, says Tickford Racing’s Lee Holdsworth.

Tyre walls at Turns 6 and 7 have this year been brought inwards, up to the back of the exit kerbs, following track limits disputes last year.

Drivers had previously run over the exit kerb at Turn 7, opening up the exit of the corner onto the critical back straight.

The revised Turn 7 wall claimed its first scalp in Thursday evening’s opening session; James Golding clouting the barrier after losing the rear of his Holden mid-corner.

Golding’s Boost Mobile-backed entry became stuck in the fence, forcing a stoppage for the car to be retrieved.

Officials inspected the barrier following the session, but elected against making any changes, aside from adding some additional reinforcement.

“I see it as being a major drama over the weekend,” said Holdsworth, who ended the session third aboard his Bottle-O Racing Mustang.

“The problem with what we’ve got now, I think the idea was great, but I think what it will create is chaos.

“If someone goes in there, we saw it in Super2, and even in our session with Golding.

“Coming out of 7, if you hit that wall, it sucks you in and spits you back out or just stops you dead and someone following closely is going to run up your arse and create a concertina.

“Certainly on the opening lap, everyone generally goes side-by-side through 6 and 7 and that won’t be possible now.

“The guy on the outside will be in the fence and bounce back into the traffic. I think it’s going to create plenty of dramas.”

Speaking prior to confirmation that the barrier will not be changed for the remainder of the weekend, second-fastest Practice 1 runner Fabian Coulthard also expressed his view.

“I don’t think we’ve seen a red flag for that corner before,” he said.

“If the tyres weren’t quite as long, I don’t think it’d be as much of a drama.

“They go down from the exit of 7 quite a way, so maybe if we could shorten that up a bit and run up to the wall, I think that’d be a better solution.

“But obviously there’s hoops you need to jump through and things like that before you can just go changing a circuit, but we can always improve it moving forward in future years.”

Coulthard stressed that he agreed with the intention of the change, which was made after consultation with drivers following last year’s event.

“I think what they’ve tried to achieve is good, I think the racing is better, it’ll definitely create potentially a passing opportunity,” he added.

“It’s created a drive-corner now, you have to drive out of 7, where before you could just run out over the kerb and it didn’t really matter.

“I think that aspect, we don’t want to do that, but the way the tyres are, the way the belt gets rippled, it’s leaning over now more than it was when we started.

“I think as the race goes on it’ll be worse.”