THE latest episode of The Undercut is devoted to fan questions – and the first cab off the rank raised a couple of interesting points around Supercars’ new Finals format.
Or more specifically what precedes finals, which Brett Nosse referred to in his question in football code vernacular as the “minor premiership”.
Brett asked: Should they have a minor premiership trophy before the final chase in Supercars? That was Broc Feeney would have been awarded for his fantastic drive.
Technically, there is one: the Repco Sprint Cup, which Feeney was awarded after the final round prior to the enduros and finals at Queensland Raceway.
But Jack Perkins felt Brett’s question raises a fair point in a different way.
“I guess the point that Brett is probably trying to make is maybe we need to amplify it a bit more and pump it up, not just something that’s sort of lightly celebrated,” Perkins said.
The ‘cup’ element of the trophy’s name was also a talking point.
“There’s a problem with it that I think we need to fix for next year,” host Aaron Noonan said.
“It’s not a cup: it’s a trophy. If you’re going to (call it) a Cup, it’s got to be an actual cup.”
The trophy for the Repco-sponsored Sprint Cup is modelled off the Brabham BT19 steering wheel as a nod to Sir Jack Brabham’s 1966 Formula 1 world championship triumph, with both a perpetual version of the trophy and a smaller replica that the winning driver gets to keep.
The panel also raised the potential of naming the Sprint Cup trophy after a Supercars luminary.
“If we were to (name the cup after someone), to be honest you start to think of champions and who’s won the most,” Perkins said.
“Jamie Whincup at seven times (champion) would probably be the right guy when you think about it, but you probably want to go back in the generations as well.”
Watch the full episode in the player below!
The Undercut – The Q&A Edition