The use of tyre bundles has been questioned by Supercars drivers after a mammoth pile-up in Race 32 at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.
Six cars were eliminated from Sunday’s 250km encounter on the streets of Surfers Paradise after a pile-up on Lap 4 at the beach chicane.
The carnage unfolded after James Golding got sideways and clipped a tyre bundle located on the apex in the final left-hander of the chicane complex.
It fed the #31 PremiAir Racing ZB Commodore back into oncoming traffic as the remainder of the field piled in.
Tickford Racing’s James Courtney was one of those left with nowhere to go, damaging the #5 Mustang after a recent chassis swap.
”I’m fine — it’s just so disappointing,” said Courtney, who later returned to the track, though 16 laps down.
“That’s why as drivers we lobby so hard to get rid of tyre bundles because I think that’s pretty much what caused it all.
“There were just cars blocking the track and I tried to stop, and I wasn’t too bad with the first impact but then I just got cleaned up from the rear.
“Hugely disappointing — these guys have had an unbelievable workload over the last few rounds, and then to have this happen is just hugely disappointing.”
Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Nick Percat shared Courtney’s view on the use of tyre bundles.
“I couldn’t see a whole lot, up on two wheels through the chicanes; unfortunately for the NTI-mobile we’re out of the race,” said Percat.
“It’s great for the safety with Jimmy — when I landed I got a bit of a fright because I didn’t want to hit him in the driver’s door and injure him, obviously.
“So I did my best to try get right and just hit him in the front wheel.
“It’s a shame, so many cars out — I think in this day and age we’re a bit over tyre bundles.
“Obviously he has lost the car a bit, but he shouldn’t pay a price like that because we use old rubbish tyres that are ratchet-strapped to the track.
“Disappointing that in this day and age we use a used tyre from a garbage bin and we write off six cars.”
All up, the incident claimed Percat, Golding, Macauley Jones, Lee Holdsworth, Broc Feeney, and Todd Hazelwood.
Supercars Practice 2 on Friday was red-flagged to reposition the tyre bundles after they were seemingly forgotten about after being moved back for the preceding Porsche Carrera Cup session.
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