Team bosses mixed on 'fake racing' rule

Two opposing views on the divisive fuel drop rule emerged on the eve of Supercars’ return to Perth, following recent races that featured fuel saving.

Fuel drop rules — a mandated minimum amount of fuel that must be put into cars during a race — were abolished as fuel churns were introduced in 2025, with fuel towers returning for the enduros and Finals events.

Cam Waters recently hit out against a growing trend of fuel saving with the fuel churns, setting off a debate.

Supercars data analyst Scott Sinclair countered in his piece for Supercars.com, writing: "The root cause is the strategic decisions teams are making — or self-inflicted pit stop issues.”

Supercars has been measuring fuel economy at recent events, amid ongoing efforts to equalise fuel economy between the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang and Toyota Supra.

Minor mapping tweaks were implemented to the Chevrolet engines at the NTI Townsville 500, which featured two refuelling races. A Camaro recently completed testing at Queensland Raceway.

There has been no suggestion the rule will return, but when asked if it could be reintroduced, Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan was stern.

“I’m not real big on fake racing stuff, and that’s fake racing stuff,” Ryan told media.

“It’s like the CPS [compulsory pit stop] at Bathurst, it shouldn’t be that. It should be 161 laps, get there as fast as you can, it’s the same as every other race.

Brad Jones, whose eponymous team is running Toyota Supras, replied: “Well, I don’t know that it’s fake racing.

“I’m not opposed to fuel drops. For me, using these churns has taken a lot of strategy out of races because almost everyone has to put the maximum amount of fuel in each time.

“There’s always things that we can look at and learn and change and try. I think there’s some work to be done there for sure.”

Supercars drivers will contest dual 120km sprints in Perth on Saturday, before a 200km refuelling race on Sunday.