Overtime debate resurfaces after Darwin Safety Cars
Overtime debate resurfaces after Darwin Safety Cars
The Darwin finale finished under the control of the Safety Car
Mark Skaife in support of seeing a "proper racing finish"
Two late Safety Car deployments in Darwin have reignited the 'overtime' debate, with Mark Skaife in support of seeing a "proper racing finish."
Twice in three days in Darwin, an incident in the final five laps triggered the Safety Car in Darwin. Cam Waters was forced to deny both Penrite Racing Fords in a one-lap finish, before Anton De Pasquale won under yellow.
Races in Darwin and Ipswich finished behind the Safety Car last year. Drivers entertained the concept of ‘overtime’ style rules being introduced to guarantee grandstand finishes, while the concept was floated at Commission level.
At the centre of the debate is cars having enough fuel to complete additional racing, which is currently a tall order given many finish races with little more than fumes in the tank. Another caveat is time certainty.
“You've got to do the time certainty and probably pull that back so the start time comes back slightly,” Skaife said on MotorRacing 360.
"So you want to facilitate, say, two laps to at least finish under green… I think all of us want a proper racing finish. That’s what we would want, except for the guy leading.
"That would've been a drama for Anton, because all of a sudden you've got to start the race again."
NASCAR's overtime rules, also known as ‘green-white-chequered’, set up an additional two-lap dash in the event of a late caution. In NASCAR, though, there is no limit on how many overtime restarts there can be.
Overtime rules would raise questions over strategy, given weight is lap time. Skaife suggested that such a rule is incumbent on teams being able to facilitate it with fuel, rather than taking a punt.
“When you do it under Safety Car, you protect yourself reasonably well if you get a good restart,” Skaife continued.
"But to the point of that, time certainty needs to shift slightly back to be able to facilitate it, and you tell teams that under the circumstance of possibly doing, say, two more laps, then they fuel accordingly to be able to do that."
The 2026 season resumes in Townsville on July 10-12.
