BARRY Ryan has called on Supercars to take a leaf out of NASCAR’s book and come down hard on anything that constitutes result manipulation as the championship braces for the first race of its finals series today.
Ten drivers are currently in title contention, a figure which will be whittled down to seven by the end of this weekend.
Triple Eight, Grove Racing, Tickford Racing and Walkinshaw Andretti United have two drivers each in play, while Team 18 and Dick Johnson Racing have one apiece.
That leaves scope for the latter two squads to deploy David Reynolds and Will Davison, who didn’t make the cut, to help Anton De Pasquale and Brodie Kostecki respectively.
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“It’s something we have never done before as a sport where we have got literally 10 cars that mathematically right now could win the championship. That’s probably never happened before with three rounds to go in the history of the sport,” said Grove team principal David Cauchi.
“So there’s going to be some fun and games, and teams will play it to their best advantage because that’s why we’re here.
“We’re here to win the championship, so absolutely teams are going to play games and drivers are going to play games, but I think bring it on and may the best team and man win.”
Ryan’s Erebus Motorsport team is one of five with the freedom to chase trophies without any championship implications to consider, but he’s keeping a keen eye on how things unfold.
“As long as Supercars have got the balls to make decisions for people if manipulate the sport,” he said.
“If they do what NASCAR have done, there’s going to be big fines.
“You shouldn’t be able to manipulate the sport.”
Pic: Supplied/Mark Horsburgh
Cauchi added: “You don’t want to see reckless driving and cars being taking out and all that sort of jazz. That’s not good for the sport.
“You want to see what Supercars is about; it’s hard, close, fair racing.”
Supercars driving standards advisor Craig Baird has previously expressed that deterrents will be enforced.
“We’ve already got rules in place where manufacturers can’t team up and group up together to disadvantage another manufacturer,” Baird told the official Supercars website in August.
“I don’t think some teams actually realise how harsh some penalties can be if you’re altering the outcome of a championship. That stuff must have major consequences.”
Nevertheless, don’t expect to see the non-finals drivers make life easy for those still in the hunt.
“I think Australians aren’t as gentleman-like as NASCAR,” said Ryan.
“In NASCAR it’s like all the drivers pull over in the last round and let the four (left in the chase) race. It’s not going to happen here.”