Stewards inquiries: V8 Supercar Championship Series, Round 13, Eastern Creek Raceway

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from www.cams.com.au

Stewards inquiries: V8 Supercar Championship Series, Round 13, Eastern Creek Raceway
CAMS Press Release
9 Dec 2004

Friday 3 December
Car #75, Anthony Tratt, was found to be in breach of Red Flag Rule in overtaking car #24, Garth Waldon, during Practice 1. Stewards imposed a penalty of a fine of $1,000.

The following competitors were fined for failure to attend Competitors and Drivers’ Briefing:
- Motorsport Holdings (car #15 and #51), $500.
- Prodrive Racing (car #5 and #6), $500.

Saturday 4 December
Car #45, Dale Brede, found to be in breach of Rules, exceeding the pit lane speed limit, during Practice; fined $300.

Car #23, David Besnard, was excluded from the Top 10 Shootout after breaching the Supplementary Regulations having not reached the pit exit prior to the preceding car receiving the green flag to commence its timed lap. Car #23 started Race 1 from grid position 10.

The following cars/drivers received a drive through penalty during Race 1:
- Car #888, Max Wilson, for a false start;
- Car #2, Mark Skaife, for a false start.

Sunday 5 December
The following cars/drivers were found to be in breach of Rules, exceeding the pit lane speed limit, during the Warm-Up:
- Car #29, Paul Morris; fined $200
- Car #6, Craig Lowndes; fined $300.

Car #88, Paul Radisich, was found to be in breach of Rules, exceeding the pit lane speed limit, during the pre-race session; fined $300.

The following cars/drivers received a drive through penalty during Race 2:
- Car #21, Brad Jones, for exceeding the pit lane speed limit;
- Car #98, Russell Ingall, for exceeding the pit lane speed limit;
- Car #51, Greg Murphy, for a breach of pit lane safety rules (exiting pits in an unsafe manner)
- Car #29, Paul Morris, for a driving infringement against car #23, David Besnard.

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[275 GTB-4]

Can't help thinking that Pit Lane speed infringements are ruining race results.....maybe a little more common sense is needed or more tolerance? (plse don't bother flameing me....I know, give some people an inch, and....they think they're a Ruler!)

[Just Do It!]

How can Morris and Lowndes both be fined for speeding in pitlane in the same session, yet the fine amount isn't identical?

[Wrex]

Different speeds I would assume (faster = more $$)

or one may have offended previously more than the other.

[Bruce Moxon]

Originally Posted by Wrex

...or one may have offended previously more than the other.

Thereby suggesting that Craig is more offensive than Paul?

Never mind - I'll get back in my box.


Bruce Moxon

[bestfit]

I was watching the coverage of EC on the Bigpond site and was interested to note that EVERY car I saw come into the pits with the incar camera / dashboard on, very briefly exceeded 40kmh going through the chicane at the start of pit lane (according to the virtual dashboard). They would all hit the limit line between 35 and 40kmh, sit at exactly 40kmh between the limit line and the chicane, then rise to either 41 or 42kmh through the chicane (1-2 seconds) then settle back to exactly 40kmh. I did not see any car exceed 40kmh on the run down pit straight.
Assuming the telemetry figures shown on Bigpond were correct, it had me wondering at what point are the radar readings taken? They could have pinged virtually every car if the readings were taken coming through the chicane.
Are the radar readings taken from a fixed point or hand held radar gun?

[Bruce Moxon]

Hand-held radar guns - there are at least a couple of them.

Possibly the 'jump' in speed through the chicane could be the locked rear axle 'hopping' under lots of lock. Pretty hard for the rear wheels to turn at exactly the same speed under such a tight turn, so they tend to jump around a bit.


A theory anyway.


Bruce Moxon (what the hell am I doing here on a saturday night? Oh, yeah - I'm married)

[bestfit]

That would probably explain it. Thanks.

[GTRMagic]

Radar guns are not the best way however... if they are as accurate as they are on the road, then even a 1% inaccuracy can unduly penalise and/or not penalise a driver....

The most appropriate method of detemining pitlane speed is a series of timing lines in the pit lane at set distances, and a mathematical calculation of time spent between these lines will detemine whether the car has exceeded the pitlane speed limit.

A very professional way to do it.... which is more expensive than a police radar gun... but the accuracy would have to be a lot better...

[Crash Test]

One thing I have always wondered- why in rally recce, the people who use the radar guns have to have the correct accreditation for use of the guns, but it seems at V8 meetings, these sorts of qualifications aren't necessary? I'm sure the people using them know what they are doing, but if someone wanted to go and chase a technicality, it seems like a fairly prime target...

[snappa]

generally speaking there is a control line at the entry to the pits proper . when the car reaches this line they must be at or below the pit lane speed limit . This was the case at barbagello the last couple of years . where they had two accredited operators at each end of pitlane to capture the speed coming in and going out .

[Average Punter]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

The most appropriate method of detemining pitlane speed is a series of timing lines in the pit lane at set distances, and a mathematical calculation of time spent between these lines will detemine whether the car has exceeded the pitlane speed limit.

Some years ago the Police used to do this on the northern freeway out of Sydney. They would time you from a helicopter as you travelled between 2 points (marked out by lines across the road) to measure your speed.

They had a sign on the freeway near Ourimbah telling us that's what they were up to. Didn't take long before someone added "Pigs in Space" in texta...

[1200Datto27]

GTR, Has steve evertold you about the time that they timed an F3 with an average speed between those strips in the pits at one of the tracks? The speed was around 130kph.

[GTRMagic]

That would have been nice... the bods with full headsets on, oblivious to the rest of the would, could have been cleaned up in a heartbeat.....

[1200Datto27]

Oh, because Channel 9 can't program properly, I had to rush the last post, that was from a standing start.

[GTRMagic]

Yes I pity those taping WW last night, it was 5 minutes early. Again. To stop people watching The Office then switching over presumably

[1200Datto27]

Yep, we caught it just in time, it still finished at 11:15 though.