[VASC17R25R26] Coates Hire Newcastle 500:24-26 Nov

[anthony81901]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

A shame for DJRTP, they can enjoy pit box one next year in celebration of their sparkling team performance

Indeed, IIRC first time 888 have not occupied pit bay 1 since HRT pipped them in 2009.

[Phillip Ireland]

Excellent response by DJRTP and Scotty Mac, copped it on the chin and offered congratulations to 888/Whincup. Impressive, sincere and mature when emotions must have been sky-high. A touch of class exhibited by very few supporters of both sides on the websites and fb pages.
Looking forward to next year already.
And Newcastle might not be a perfect track, but as the scene for a dramatic series finale, it knocked Homebush out of the park. Well done, all.

[thlbtcc]

Incredible race the end the season. Such drama. Scotty threw it away, well done Whincup.

[Langers]

Originally Posted by racer69

I don't think they can protest?

When Triple 8 protested the time penalty given to Whincup towards the end at Bathurst last year, weren't they told eventually that a penalty awarded in the race was un-appeallable (or a word to that effect)?

Which in itself is completely insane. Being unable to appeal a penalty which was issues so swiftly and with such significant consequences just instinctively does not seem fair or reasonable.

I know we want races decided on the track not in tribunals, but there has to be a better balance.

[Langers]

And a lesson for McLaughlin - get the championship wrapped up well before the final round next year! I’m sure he has many championships ahead of him.

[Langers]

McLaughlin was also close to being taken out by a spinning Lowndes after the clash - even without a penalty that would have been his day done.

Bet DJRTP is wishing they’d put it in the shed and changed engines at Bathurst!

[Langers]

Also extremely surprised that Moffat didn’t make it easier for McLaughlin on his way through. He’s (semi) retiring, and they are good friends. What did he have to gain from banging wheels at the apex?

[Purist]

Some basic tweaks for 2018.

Get rid of the red and white curbing at Turns 2, 7, and 8. Have a different profile on the curbing at Turn 6, so it doesn't have that point that sticks out mid-corner. Move the Turn 1 curbing so that it follows the profile of the pit-out lane immediately to the outside of the yellow line. And hopefully they can ease and move back that kink leading into Turn 1 to clean up that approach for overtaking.

What's good news for overtaking is guys are running close together heading into Turns 1, 2, and 12 (the hairpin). Sometimes they even have an overlap a ways before the braking zone, with the track as it is now.

I have to say, I'd just LOVE to see the GT3s have a go at this circuit. With their downforce, that run into the hairpin ought to be flat-out. Also, the esses would be FAST for those guys.

Hopefully they make good adjustments for next year, and the teams get the gearing and suspension settings worked out better, too.

And I guess we'll have another new venue for next year. I doubt Tailem Bend will be as eye-popping; I'm not yet sure just what to make of that one, because I'm not certain about what the actual layout they'll use is going to look like.

[Purist]

Oe other note.

With the available technology, there's no bloody excuse for pit lane speeding penalties being a judgment call, or for having a radar gun there that can be blocked by the car in front, letting the guy behind get away with one. All the cars have data feeds, and presumably location data is in there along with the speed at that point, so there should be nothing subjective about it.

[HDTVKSS]

IIRC when SMcL won the Dunlop series in Sydney, that race was a really scrappy one as well, even for a Dunlop race. I cant recall if he was involved in the incidents but perhaps he needs to have a think about his response to stress. a good sports psychologist may be able to help

There is a stark difference between Whincup on Saturday having binned it and what we saw from SMcL on Sunday. call it experience or what you will, one went out and did what was required and one didn't.

As happy (and surprised) as I am for Whincup, I feel for Scott, its gotta be hard to take for the ego. Bank balance probably took a hit as well in terms of bonus.

Roland Dane also must get a lot of satisfaction from this having beaten his former star employee who left chasing mega dollars. I think next year will be a Penske romp once they get it all together.

As for the track? yeah, nah.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by Purist

With the available technology, there's no bloody excuse for pit lane speeding penalties being a judgment call, or for having a radar gun there that can be blocked by the car in front, letting the guy behind get away with one. All the cars have data feeds, and presumably location data is in there along with the speed at that point, so there should be nothing subjective about it.

GPS speed is always averaged, I don't think it is anywhere near precise enough for this momentary infractions that are recorded.

[drftin]

Originally Posted by HDTVKSS

IIRC when SMcL won the Dunlop series in Sydney, that race was a really scrappy one as well, even for a Dunlop race. I cant recall if he was involved in the incidents but perhaps he needs to have a think about his response to stress. a good sports psychologist may be able to help.

are you saying you wouldn't have had a go if put in the same position?

put on some risky moves to attempt to get past people or just lie there and accept 2nd.
the difference between brilliance and crashing is tiny

[HDTVKSS]

Originally Posted by drftin

are you saying you wouldn't have had a go if put in the same position?

put on some risky moves to attempt to get past people or just lie there and accept 2nd.
the difference between brilliance and crashing is tiny

If thats what i was saying, then thats what i would have said.....

[Razzzor]

People keep saying he's got plenty of championships in him, but there's every chance that he never gets another shot. Plenty of drivers never did. How many shots has he had so far? None really, this is the only time he's been in a car capable of beating T8.

There's every chance that T8 will get back to the same level of dominance they've shown for over a decade now. Since Stone Brothers and HSV won a couple of titles. Or even Ford sort their sh-t out because Mostert over the enduros was looking like a favourite but all his car pace fell away at Puke and Newcastle for some reason.

I do think that finale and Whincup winning the title again is not the conclusion many of the fans wanted. Quite a bad conclusion to the year when Scotty dominated all the stats, except still somehow ends up not winning the title. Does JW even care that much about #7? He kind of downplayed the entire thing saying he thinks it'll be his last, he'll make a decision on his future after the season etc... does he feel that he let the fans down a bit taking this one away from the young now voted most popular driver? It wasn't a championship winning drive from JW this year, his own team mate would have taken 6 wins to JW's 3 had it not been for team orders at Newcastle.

Back to the claim that Scotty will have plenty more chances. Lowndes won his last title in 1999. Back then you'd say he'll have tonnes more titles in him, especially driving for the best team his entire career. How many did he get, zero.

How many more titles did Rick Kelly or Tander end up winning? None, not even close for Rick he's barely won races since then. How many did Alonso get after 2006... How about Greg Murphy, came so close in 2003... only won 3 more races in his entire career (2 of which were with co-drivers).

The biggest problem with this series is the points, that's been exposed horribly this year with SM taking twice as many wins as JW. They need to fix that. Indycar has 10 points difference between 1st and 2nd, which is 20%. F1 7 points, 28%. Yet V8's only 12 points difference when you're awarding 150 (rather than 50 and 25), it's only 8% difference. It rewards consistency so there's no point making that big move for the win. Also rewarding 0 for a DNF, but 42 if you happen to come back out with a wagon 13 laps down. It rewards playing it safe and not making that big move, which is what JW has done this year while SVG and SM made the bigger risks.

DJRTP came out with a faster car in the first half of the season but had some things go wrong. T8 has ended the season probably quicker than them now. JW has taken 2 wins in 3 races, Coulthard fumbles around outside the top 10 while JW/SVG are regularly at the front since the enduros.
The only reason people even think DJRTP is quicker is because Scotty is so good in quali. So it could be that T8 roll out next year with the same speed they've ended this year with, and it won't take much for JW to find a bit more speed. Nor will it take much for SVG who was very inconsistent this year. It'll be such a shame if DJRTP struggle next year and it's back to normal dominance for T8.

I'm quite disgusted with Lowndes of all people. He really cost SM that title pushing him so hard at the end. All for nothing because he had zero to gain out of it - 3 more points when he was already 460 behind SVG. Instead it dropped him from 5th to 10th in points, just desserts there. It was all so his team mate could win the drivers title, and that's not the way championships should be decided. It's bad enough SVG had to gift JW a win but to have CL launching an all out assault to get that vital point as well, and all the penalties thrown at SM during the day.

Although, SM did pull a bit of a Will Power there he's partially to blame for much out of it. What was he thinking on Simona? Poor fella.

Oh well, at least we've still got Formula E as a distraction over the summer.

[ford71]

Dammit.

Was hard to watch about the time DJRTP gets pinged for supposedly speeding in pitlane. I thought we were at a point where the penalty suits the "crime"?

Had that first PLP not been issued, I'm quite certain Scotty would be a championship winner this morning. Everything else that followed is a result of that decision.

But some guy thinks Scotty came in too fast even when the following car closes the gap.......ok.

Lowndes' car was never far enough up on Scotty, why put your car there when the gap will narrow? (that wall needs a better profile). He knew what he was doing.

Very disappointed.

[Umai Naa]

He was pinged for speeding AFTER the control line, not before it, where SvG made up ground.

[Average Punter]

Pretty sure I saw vision of Scotty into pit lane with the rears locked - no doubt that's what caused him to slide over the control line above 40kmh.

I did think for a second that SVG was going to Liberace him just as he did to Slade at Pukekohe. If Scotty hadn't locked up and slid, SVG would have hit him...

[Purist]

The series mandates a spec ECU with telemetry feed, don't they? Use that and the transponder to determine pit lane speed. I hope there is at least a rule allowing leniency if you get physically shoved at pit entry.

I don't think you can blame Scott for that anomaly in the profile of the wall.

If we're really gonna go at it, shouldn't Caruso have gotten a penalty for squeezing Jamie on Lap 1 in Race 1?

And I'm putting this "impossible to pass" business to bed. If a wounded car on knackered tires can make those two passes, what's everyone else's excuse? (I'm not saying it's Phillip Island, Spa, or Road America in terms of passing, but it's a fair ways away from the "most difficult to pass" end of the spectrum.)

It's not as bad as with, say, Jimmie Johnson (in part because I've been rather out of the loop for a few seasons), but Jamie Whincup getting another title does give me a similar sense of "hopeless inevitability". And I mean like, the Three Sisters would have had Scotty die of a heart attack to ensure Jamie got the title sort of thing.

I'm not the biggest SM fan by any stretch. I'm more in the "anyone but JW" camp; even SvG would be at least somewhat preferable to me. Several years ago, I was rooting for CL, but well, things change I suppose.

[GTRMagic]

192,000 Enjoy Newcastle Event

Including 9,000 corporates!!

[HDTVKSS]

Also, for all the bleating of "Whincup only won 4 races" let me take you on a strange journey back to 2005.

The Enforcer (steering a Stone Bros Ford) became known as the Accumulator and won a grand total of 1 round (2 race wins total) with one retirement and took the title. Behind him was Lowndes on 6 wins (but 4 retirements) , Ambrose on 5 wins and 2 retirements, and T Kelly on 5 wins and 4 retirements.

Im getting old, but i don't recall many Ford fans begrudging the legitimacy of that title. There was some talk of - "if he doesn't win a round is it a hollow win?", but that was about the extent of it.

[Umai Naa]

Rick Kelly only won one race all season.

If you look at how that championship was won, the similarities to this year, are striking.

[JAFA851]

Originally Posted by ford71

Lowndes' car was never far enough up on Scotty, why put your car there when the gap will narrow? (that wall needs a better profile). He knew what he was doing.

'Cos he's a dirty driver, always has been. Tries to hide it behind that big fake smile and baby christenings and all manner of other public arse sucking crap, making out he's a good honest bloke. He's a sellout, cheap and dirty.

[Mixer]

Dick Johnson won in 83 with only 1 race win right?

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[chavez]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Dick Johnson won in 83 with only 1 race win right?

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

'84, but only 7 rounds (6 different winners) and only (from memory) five drivers competed in every round.

[Sandgroper]

Originally Posted by Razzzor

I'm quite disgusted with Lowndes of all people. He really cost SM that title pushing him so hard at the end.

Are you serious. This is called racing, is it wrong to race and help your team mates out or race the next person in general, no matter who they are or where they are. I didnt see Moff handing over his position to help out and CL is no different. Im sure each team would have done the same in the same situation.

Anyway AWESOME looking track on TV

Best Race of the year

Unlucky for Scotty, thought he would crack under pressure, didnt really. Was probably hard done by in one of the penalties, but hey thats racing.

Bring on 2018 and the changes.