As an Australian motorsport fan, I am annoyed that the Bathurst 1000 which used to have as many as 56 starters when I was a kid, decided to close the shop and run a system of Racing Entitlement Contracts; which limits the standing field to just 24 plus the odd wildcard entries. In the name of "professionalism", one of the things that made this particular race so fun was that it was an open event and a bunch of teams that really had no chance at all of winning, still got to complete on the same stage as the best in the country.
The first reason usually given is the complaint that slower cars are dangerous, however if you actually interrogate that for the truth, then the actual number of instances where a leading car struck a slower car is few and far between. Since 1960, there can't have been more than half a dozen such instances. Conversely, the number of times that the leaders of the race have taken each other out, is many. This says to me that a smaller team is more acutely aware of the incurred costs of damaging their own car, than a professional team is; which might have the luxury of backups.
The other excuse given is that there isn't sufficient space. I think that this is demonstrably nonsense and with a small change in regulation can be proven more completely. In other words, it is a complete nonsense.
There are 36 double garages at Bathurst; which already accommodate 72 cars. Support categories which can operate from the paddock behind and don't even need to use the pits, would continue to operate from that whole complex behind the pits; which makes the whole thing a giant carnival.
Besides which, if the contingency plan for 2021 looks like it will be a massive six day festival, comprising all manner of support categories and several major series, then that proves that the assertion was always nonsense.
However there is one thing if implemented would really blow the notion that there isn't room on pit lane for a field of 56 cars out of the water; that is to look at what exists in other series.
Formula One is the definitive pinnacle of motorsport. Red Bull have gotten so good at changing all four tyres in a hurry that they've managed to get the process down to 1.2 seconds. I remember as a kid watching Formula One in the 1980s that a sub-10 second stop was pretty neat.
That comes with a massive proviso. To have all four tyres changed in under two seconds, requires a coordinated and practiced dance where every little sub job has been specialised. If takes more than 20 people to be able to pull it off. That's ridiculous.
Supercars on the other hand, have about 8 people out in pit lane when a tyre and fuel stop happens. That's still a coordinated dance and yet, it still manages to look like amateur hour in comparison with NASCAR.
NASCAR only allows six people over the wall at once. Teams are so good at chasing little efficiencies that they will hire college football players to act as pit crew. NASCAR also has fuelling by gravity fed fuel churns, manual jacking of cars by a chap who runs around with the jack, they will continue to have 5 stud lugnuts for this season but move to a single centre nut in 2022, and penalties for having uncontrolled equipment.
A good pitstop in NASCAR takes about 15 seconds and with only a limited amount of space in which to do the work, it means that 36 cars fit into an even smaller pit lane than Supercars does with 24 or Formula One's 20.
This is why I think that the excuse given that you can't fit 56 cars into a space designed for 72 is ridiculous. In theory, 56 cars should be able to fit into 29 double garages or using the ratio of space that NASCAR allows, as little as 18 double garages.
I miss having the wee little teams in the big race. They're the ones who aren't sanitised with corporate blandness. The little teams are where you'll find volunteers, people cooking sausages out the back, crew who will actually talk to you, and where they will leave all the doors open so that you can see what's going on because they don't care about the need for secrecy.
Back at at Hidden Valley this year, a commotion broke out in pit lane when Erebus Motorsport moved their equipment into the lane; in front of where BJR Racing would have had Macaulay Jones drive through, had the stuff not been there. This didn't result in any kind of fine or punishment and because an incident on track them triggered a safety car, the kerfuffle was pointless.
Had the incident happened in NASCAR, as there was no car coming down pit lane for service, then this would have resulted in an equipment violation.
A car doing 80km/h which strikes equipment or people, tends to transfer kinetic energy into that equipment or people and does work to them. Uncontrolled work, especially done to people, has the ability to damage them. Leaving stuff out in the pitlane vastly increases the chances of serious injury.
Second to that, clearing the pitlane when there are no cars immediately to be serviced, actually opens up the available space which can fit on pit lane. As a packaging question, it should be obvious that having fewer people and fewer equipment out, is more efficient.
This brings me back to the question of why Supercars doesn't want more entries at the big events like the Bathurst 1000 or Sandown 500. It doesn't have anything to do with the number of cars that fit on pit lane; nor the quality of the quality of the entries. Rather, by closing the shop, it means that the teams themselves don't have to share prize money, advertising revenue, or payments from television, radio and internet broadcasting rights. The really big prize was always the advertising dollar and by limiting who is allowed to play, the teams get to exclude any new comers. I think that that's been bad for the sport, bad for the fans, and bad for the ongoing legend because there are no more true privateers and that spirit that they could have a go, has been destroyed. We are all worse for it.
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