Supercars stars back key pre-Bathurst 1000 change

Supercars stars Brodie Kostecki, Will Brown and Matt Payne are all supportive of the call to make pre-Bathurst changes to Safety Car rules.

Revealed last week, the Supercars Commission signed off on revised Safety Car rules. The changes received unanimous support at the meeting, and are effective from Bathurst.

The 80km/h speed limiter was removed, except for in emergency situations, as were 'slow zones' and the closing of pit lane, which were all trialled at the AirTouch 500 at The Bend.

Under the revised rules, drivers must slow significantly when passing an incident area, which will be signalled by double-waved yellow flags. Drivers will still be monitored over compliance to Safety Car and yellow flag conditions, or risk receiving penalties.

Reigning Bathurst champion Kostecki backed the move, believing there were risks involved with drivers reacting to slow zones at different times around Mount Panorama.

“It’s very easy to understand, which is great. It’s back to how it should be,” Dick Johnson Racing star Kostecki said on his Lucky Dogs podcast.

“Maybe it’s used in other categories around the world, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for us.

“The biggest thing was going to Bathurst and coming around to a blind corner, coming into a slow zone… there’s a lot of debate of where you could slow down."

The limiter and countdown were designed to stop drivers being able to ‘race’ back to the pits, but they inadvertently created a strategic anomaly, where drivers could clear compulsory pit stops without losing (and in some instances, even gaining) track position.

The rules came under the spotlight in Ipswich when Cam Waters, Andre Heimgartner and Kai Allen moved to the front of the pack under Safety Car conditions, despite initially being down the order.

Later, Brown watched his own car sustain damage in a Safety Car slow zone trial at The Bend, with Jamie Whincup hitting the rear of Scott Pye’s sister car.

The reigning Supercars champion echoed Kostecki's comments, insisting that reacting to other drivers’ different response times to slow zones would have been a challenge in Bathurst.

"That’s good by Supercars, because that’s what we’ve all been pushing for as drivers," Brown said.

“If it was down Conrod [Straight] and there was a sector line over the crest, someone might brake 60, 70 metres earlier than someone else… to react to that is quite hard.

“I generally just try and offset myself to the car in front, but if you’re in a big line of cars, it’s very hard.”

Penrite Racing driver Matt Payne was the unlucky trigger for the sole Safety Car last year, and was a major beneficiary of the previous rules en route to victory in Tasmania in May.

However, while supportive of the initial ambition behind innovations such as the limiter and slow zones, Payne believes the current system works best.

“I think it’s good, going back to more traditional procedures. I think they’ve always worked for us in the past,” Payne told Supercars.com.

“I definitely understand where they're coming from, from a safety point of view. That’s always number one in our sport, making sure that we're always as safe as possible.

“I think it's good to see them trying a few different things. It's unfortunate that we didn't get to run that slow zone procedure at The Bend in a race. It would've been nice to sort of see it actually play out."

Track action in Bathurst will commence on Thursday October 9.