SUPERCARS champions Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki have revealed drivers have been warned of the severe consequences for any finals mischief taken too far.
Supercars is embarking on its first ever playoffs series, with four grand finalists in the title hunt at next week’s Adelaide decider: Brown, Broc Feeney, Chaz Mostert and Kai Allen.
The potential for unsportsmanlike manipulation of results (i.e. extending beyond legal team orders) has been an ongoing talking point, although has yet to show any real sign of presenting on-track at Gold Coast or Sandown.
Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan last month called for “big fines” if any such breach occurs, and it appears Motorsport Australia is making that a reality, per a message put into the drivers’ group chat during the Sandown weekend.
To the extent that it would be the biggest fine by far in Supercars history – i.e. 250,000 Euros, which equates to approximately AU$445,000.
The largest fine to date is $300,000 issued to John and Alyson Faulkner for failing to have their two licences partake in the 2003 Queensland Raceway round.
Taking the cake for on-track matters, DJR Team Penske was slapped with a $250,000 fine ($100,000 suspended) for its infamous 2019 Bathurst go-slow.
“So obviously I’m joking that we’re going to pay people off to try to get through, and then I think Cam (Waters) came out saying ‘yeah we’ll go out there today, race hard and take a few people out’,” Brown explained via the Lucky Dogs Podcast.
“And then Woody (Ryan Wood) obviously held me up for Chaz (Mostert to win the Saturday Sandown race).
“I think Motorsport Australia, for them and the FIA and everything, you can’t fix a race… and the other thing is you can’t take someone out deliberately.
“If anything is looked at as being deliberate, like NASCAR seem to get away with it but over here, we can rub now and we’ve definitely loosened the rules up a bit there but you can’t just punt someone off to try to get through. Which kind of happens in NASCAR.”
Kostecki chimed in: “It was, any malicious behaviour, any misconduct will equal a 250k Euro fine.”
Before Brown continued: “That was interesting, and I think there was also that you can be disqualified from an event, or not race at the next event.
“So that was pretty big, but I think once again this new format, the talk behind in the drivers’ chat and probably in the drivers was that people were going to help each other, and I felt like it probably wasn’t a bad thing putting that out.”
The bp Adelaide Grand Final (November 27-30) will be headlined by three Repco Supercars Championship races.