Trouble in Paradise?

One year ago, Champ Car raced for the last time around the streets of Surfers Paradise, a decision that was not entirely unexpected at the time the flag fell at the end of the race in 2008. When it was finally confirmed that the Champ Cars would not return to Australia, Lexmark decided the time was right to leave the event, a decision that I am sure they are happy with today.

So with the major draw card and the naming rights sponsor gone, the event organisers were quick to work a deal, and announce that the A1GP had signed a five year contract that would see the series make a welcome return to Australia to continue on the tradition of open wheel racing around the concrete jungle that sits alongside one of Australia’s greatest stretches of beach. It took some time for the last piece to fall in place but a naming rights sponsor was found in photographic giant Nikon, and the clouds that had been closing in around the event seemed to clear. However the sky fell in one week before the event was due to start when A1GP decided, ‘you know what? We can’t afford to race this year, maybe next year’.

Enter V8 Supercars Executive Chairman Tony Cochrane and his 29 merry men in fireproof overalls. In the days after the announcement he slammed the A1GP organisers, all the while blowing his own trumpet. And that’s something Cochrane deserves to do. Love him or hate him, the V8 Supercars wouldn’t be in the shape that it is today if it weren’t for him. However, having witnessed the last race weekend, I’m not sure that’s something to be so proud of anymore.

The weekend was shaping up as a publicity free kick for V8 Supercars Australia (VESA), where the only likely outcome was VESA coming out as super heroes saving the day for drivers, fans and sponsors alike. Instead, what we witnessed was an event that seemed poorly managed, with the kind of incidents one would expect from a local level event.

I appreciate that things may have been out of the control of VESA. However I can’t help but wonder if they bit off a little more than they could chew? Cochrane’s eyes must have lit up like a brake disc at the end of Conrod when he heard the A1GP wasn’t coming. ‘Finally’, he must have thought, ‘our chance to be the main act and break in to a new market’. He has for years been begging for the chance to run the event, and in a small way, that is exactly what he’s managed to achieve.

The situation they put themselves in, remember VESA were not asked to fill in the empty race slots, was perhaps one of the most challenging of all. At first thought, trying to put together the longest race outside of Bathurst in less than a week doesn’t seem like that big a challenge when all you’re doing is throwing an extra 200km of racing on top of what was originally planned. What wasn’t considered, perhaps at all, was the costs this would have; both financially and to the racing.

The track at Surfers Paradise is a public road 350 days of the year and as such does not undergo the same treatment that a full time race track does. It has never had to deal with 29, two tonnes beasts being thrown around it for 600km of racing before and the result was rapid deterioration of the track surface. In fact, by the time the top 10 shootout rolled around on Saturday, the track was already breaking apart and James Courtney found himself in the wall at the second chicane, surprisingly understeering in to the tyre wall.

What followed from that incident were quick repairs to try and seal a track that was breaking apart faster than an Oasis reunion. The 10 to 12 cars that ended up in the wall across the weekend certainly underline that point. Whincup, Davison, Richards, Courtney, Coulthard, McConville and Bargwanna are all big drivers in the sport (I should correct myself there and say big name drivers, as Jason Bargwanna by no means extends the measuring tape when it comes time to measure his height) yet they all had contact with the wall at some point, and in most cases it ended their race. The damage bill for the weekend will probably compare well to the gross national product of some small countries.

However this is not the most unforgivable sin of the weekend past. The Steward’s decisions seemed as though they were coming straight out of a Playstation 3 game. The last race of the weekend left even 20 year veterans of the sports dumbfounded in the commentary booth. When Craig Lowndes was penalised for an incident that essentially occurred before the start of the race, I almost fell off my couch. How on earth did the Stewards manage to work out that after a first lap, first corner incident the race must be restarted under safety car, with all cars returning to their original starting positions? That is with the exception of any cars that pitted prior to the safety car period. If that wasn’t confusing enough, in all their wisdom they then decided to penalise the driver responsible for the first corner incident with a drive through penalty after the race was restarted.

The driver responsible in this incident was Craig Lowndes, and I used the term loosely, as the incident was at the very least a racing incident. The driver who pitted was Russell Ingall, who sustained a cracked radiator as a result of the incident. I can understand why Lowndes was penalised, however I cannot even begin to work out why 96% of the field were returned to their original starting positions, with the driver who suffered most from the incident being the only driver not allowed to retake his position.

Watching that unfold on TV, I felt for a moment that instead of watching the 2009 V8 Supercars live from the Gold Coast, I was actually playing a game of V8 Supercars 2 on my Playstation 3 and after having a bad start I’d decided to simply restart the race.

Another incident that I wish I could have taken back on behalf of the Stewards was the mechanical black flag issued to Rick Kelly for fuel leaking from his car. Ordinarily I would agree with such a penalty, however thinking back a few rounds I seem to recall a few incidents where cars were dumping oil and water on the track as though it wasn’t such a valuable resource. As with any punishment, consistency is the key.

To top off an already stellar weekend, a number of drivers were handed parking fines while their personal cars were locked away in a secure compound across from the track. So imagine for a moment, that you’re Craig Lowndes, Rick Kelly or Russell Ingall. You’ve just had an especially hard day at work, stumble across the road to your car and find a parking infringement notice on your windscreen. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Around 10 years ago Pauline Hanson was interviewed on 60 minutes, and when confronted with a particularly tough question, I believe it was ‘Are you xenophobic’, she responded with ‘please explain?’ Since then the phrase has found it’s home in Aussie vernacular and I would now like to take the opportunity to ask Cochrane to ‘please explain’.

Of course, I don’t actually expect a personal letter from Mr. Cochrane addressing the above and while I would love to just simply put aside all that unfolded last weekend and proclaim the rest a success, I simply can’t. Too much went wrong. The saving grace? VESA can and will fix it; I’m as sure of it as I am sure that Rick Kelly’s voice will eventually break.