{"id":237001,"date":"2025-10-24T07:19:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T07:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/237001\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T07:19:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T07:19:14","slug":"supercars-responds-to-finals-series-manipulation-fears-at-gold-coast-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/237001\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars responds to Finals Series \u2018manipulation\u2019 fears at Gold Coast 500"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Supercars
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe 10 Supercars Finals Series drivers at Surfers Paradise. Image: Supplied <\/p>\n

The category\u2019s inaugural Finals Series kicks off this weekend with an \u2018Elimination Final\u2019 on the Gold Coast, where 10 contenders will be whittled down to seven.<\/p>\n

A \u2018Semi-Final\u2019 at Sandown will then cut the seven contenders back to four ahead of the decider, now dubbed the Adelaide Grand Final.<\/p>\n

The desire to progress through the Finals rounds \u2013 achieved either on points or by winning a race \u2013 has led to suggestions teams may deploy tactics to help teammates in certain situations.<\/p>\n

While team orders are allowed in Supercars, any instruction from third parties \u2013 such as manufacturers \u2013 are banned, as is anything deemed to be race manipulation.<\/p>\n

Dick Johnson Racing was famously fined $250,000 and docked 300 points for instructing one car to slow up under Safety Car conditions at the 2019 Bathurst 1000.<\/p>\n

Grove Racing boss David Cauchi, whose squad is one of four with both its drivers in the Elimination round, believes \u201cgames\u201d will be played.<\/p>\n

\t\tGold Coast 500 Greenroom Afterparty at Cali Beach – Sunday 26th October. VIP Booths available – Click here<\/a><\/p>\n

Two teams \u2013 DJR and Team 18 \u2013 have one driver in and one out of the Finals, opening the potential for the other to play \u201crear-gunner\u201d.<\/p>\n

Everything you need to know about the Supercars Finals Series<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be some fun and games and teams will play it to their best advantage, because that\u2019s why we\u2019re here, we\u2019re here to win the championship,\u201d said Cauchi.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely, teams are going to play games and drivers are going to play games, but I think bring it on and may the best man and team win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supercars\u2019 media arm appears to be hyping up the potential for tactics in the Finals, while Motorsport Australia officials are understood to be concerned about the potential for foul play.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as Supercars has the balls to make decisions if people manipulate the sport,\u201d said Erebus boss Barry Ryan, whose team is not a finals contender.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they do what NASCAR have done, there\u2019s going to be big fines. You shouldn\u2019t be able to manipulate the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Race manipulation through teammate and manufacturer tactics reared its head during NASCAR\u2019s Playoffs last year, which the US category has fought to stamp out.<\/p>\n

Ryan affirmed Supercars is yet to deliver any sort of \u201criot act\u201d to teams or drivers on the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Driving Standards Advisor] Craig Baird has a view on it, but Supercars is just going to wait and see by the sound of it, which doesn\u2019t seem like the right approach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The inaugural Supercars Finals Series bracket.<\/p>\n

Warburton told Speedcafe at the Surfers Paradise street circuit on Thursday that Supercars isn\u2019t expecting any issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any need to jump at shadows,\u201d Warburton told Speedcafe.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is talking about [the Finals Series], it\u2019s a really exciting concept and you can see it\u2019s really gearing up for an explosive end to the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a rulebook and everyone will be watching if there\u2019s anything untoward, but we\u2019re not expecting anything along those lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warburton did note that the Supercars rules around driving standards won\u2019t change for the finals \u2013 a point that will likely be underlined at a drivers briefing scheduled for later today.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing changes, but I think through the driver briefing they\u2019ll be very clear in terms of the expectations, and we\u2019ll let it play out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While the Finals Series has been implemented to ensure pressure-cooker championship deciders, teams hope incidents won\u2019t decide the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to see reckless driving and cars being taken out and that sort of jazz. That\u2019s not good for the sport,\u201d said Cauchi.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see what Supercars is about. It\u2019s hard, close, fair racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supercars title deciders have not been immune from tactics in the past, most notably in 2006 when Holden teammates were deployed to help Rick Kelly in his battle with Craig Lowndes.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 10 Supercars Finals Series drivers at Surfers Paradise. Image: Supplied The category\u2019s inaugural Finals Series kicks off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,2485,139867,9910,85],"class_list":["post-237001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-gold-coast","tag-gold-coast-500","tag-slot2","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}