SUPERCARS’ motorsport boss Tim Edwards has acknowledged the need to assess whether the championship’s new heat rules should be more readily triggered.
There were unusual scenes yesterday in Darwin where not one but two substitute drivers were required on short notice for the final Supercars race of the round, with Todd Hazelwood and Mark Winterbottom filling in for Brodie Kostecki and Thomas Randle.
Unlike Kostecki, who has been battling a virus, Randle’s sidelining seemed to be a direct result of overheating due to a cool suit failure in the Saturday race.
Supercars was not permitted to intervene however, given the forecast maximum temperature was for 32 degrees, and the heat rule (which mandates cool suit and helmet air systems to be operating at sub-25 degrees) only currently kicks in if that predicted ambient figure exceeds 32.9.
Randle’s plight has prompted questions around whether the threshold should be lowered, and Edwards confirmed that matter will be reviewed.
“Where do you draw the line? Because Broc Feeney fell out of his car in New Zealand when it was 18 degrees. How low do you go?” Edwards mused to V8 Sleuth.
“Unfortunately, driving these cars, the cabin even on a cool day is still very hot.
“It’s just something we need to work through.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of people saying ‘should the number be lower?’ We’ll look into that, 100 percent.
“But again, how low do you go? Because if we made the number 22.9, Broc Feeney still would have had an issue in New Zealand.”
The ultra-sealed nature of the Gen3 cockpits, which makes for extremely minimal airflow, has been widely highlighted as a factor that has made conditions more trying for drivers than in previous generations.
Cabin temperatures typically hover at approximately 20 degrees above the ambient.
Next up on the calendar is the Townsville 500 across July 10-12.