Why Supercars must revisit overtime finish debate

The weekend featured just two Safety Car periods, one called with three laps to go on Friday and one with three to go on Sunday.

The offending Friday incident was already cleared by the time the Safety Car entered the circuit, allowing a one-lap shootout under green to the finish.

Now, compare and contrast the excitement of Cam Waters fending off Kai Allen for the win on Friday with what happened on Sunday.

With Chaz Mostert’s stranded Supra unable to be retrieved quickly, the field dribbled around for the last two laps under Safety Car, Anton De Pasquale’s win guaranteed.

Adding insult to injury, Supercars rules require the Safety Car to pit on the last lap in this scenario, as if to tease the very solution that could be implemented.

Adopting NASCAR’s model of adding laps to ensure a proper race conclusion was floated last year following another yellow flag finish at Queensland Raceway.

Then Supercars CEO James Warburton, ever-concisions of the spectacle and fan experience, was all for it. But the teams shot it down.

“It was discussed at the Commission last year and there was mixed support for it,” Supercars motorsport boss Tim Edwards told Speedcafe on Sunday.

“Some people were absolutely opposed to it. Others were for it, but it didn’t have as much support as you might think.

“That’s certainly a solid argument for it, but there are some solid arguments as to why not to do it as well.

“I know there are a bunch of cars in the pit lane that finished on fumes [on Sunday]. All of a sudden, they wouldn’t have finished the race.”

But surely the answer is that teams would simply have to take the possibility of an overtime finish into account, as they do in NASCAR?

“Maybe, but they’re all racers in this pit lane,” said Edwards.

“Do you take the chance that the race is going to be extended by X number of laps?

“Weight is lap time and I think you’d find a lot would take the punt that there wasn’t going to be a Safety Car in the last two laps.

“It’s a tricky one.”

Unfortunately, the issue appears to be a case of listening to the teams over the fans.

A Speedcafe Poll last year after Ipswich yielded a 70 percent vote in favour of introducing overtime finishes.

NASCAR’s rules require two laps to be added if the scheduled distance is set to be reached under yellow flag conditions.

It’s known as a ‘green-white-chequer’, for which there are unlimited attempts allowed.

Supercars could go down that path, or simply add to its existing rule that states: “Each lap completed while the SC is deployed will be counted as a race lap.”

Add in “except in the last two laps of the scheduled distance” and you’re most of the way there.

Supercars has, after all, done similar before. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the first five Safety Car laps during sprint races weren’t counted to the race total.

Such a system requires less fuel than it appears, too, given the additional laps are actually the ones completed under yellow, when fuel consumption is lower.

This is of course null and void in the case that a race goes time-certain. But even in that rare scenario, the races are usually finishing under green anyway.

Thankfully, Safety Car finishes are also rare. But that doesn’t mean Supercars should just shrug its shoulders when they do occur and continue to deprive fans of thrilling finishes.