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Richie Stanaway was the first Repco Supercars Championship driver to hit the wall at the VAILO Adelaide 500 and was subsequently ruled out with concussion-like symptoms.
Moments after his encounter with the wall at Turn 8 during Qualifying for Race 23, Matt Stone Racing’s Cameron Hill and David Reynolds of Team 18 crashed.
On Sunday in Qualifying for Race 24, Brad Jones Racing driver Jaxon Evans became the fourth victim to Turn 8.
All four incidents began with the drivers clipping the inside Armco barrier.
Taking to social media, three-time champion Scott McLaughlin said he “never quite understood” the guardrail and that a kerb “does enough.”
That sentiment has been echoed by 2007 champion Tander, who has called for changes to the turn.
The five-time Bathurst 1000 winner said a balance has to be struck between moving the barrier back and discouraging used of the kerb at high speed.
“I’d like, if we can in the future, to maybe look at a way to just open up the Armco – kerb to Armco gap,” said Tander on the Fox Sports broadcast.
“So maybe open up that Armco if we could a little bit back. But we don’t want to encourage race car drivers that are north of 200 km/h to jump a kerb.
“So we need to find a balance of moving that Armco back, maybe opening up the margin of error a little bit for the driver but also not encouraging the drivers that they’re going to go 15km/h faster there because they’re going to jump over a kerb.
“That’s the challenge. It’s been like this for quite some time, and maybe it is time after this weekend to revise and have another look. Clearly Motorsport Australia and Supercars will do that.
“If we can just give a little bit of that margin so you still do feel that kerb every time you turn in, you just feel that kerb. But if you get it six inches wrong, you’re not writing the race car off. Maybe we can find a happy balance there. That might be all we need to do.
“Let’s not change the architecture of Turn 8, let’s not change the angle of approach, let’s not change the mid-corner speed, let’s not change the exit, because we love it.
“As a race car driver, when you get through there on a brand new tyre in qualifying and you know you’ve maximised the car — you don’t have a smile on your face, but you’re pretty happy with yourself. So don’t change that, but let’s just open up the margin of error a little bit.”
HUGE 🤯
The final @BoostAus Qualifying session of the season comes to an abrupt end!
Follow all the action of the VAILO Adelaide 500 on our Live Feed here 👉 https://t.co/qyu6AAgclo#RepcoSC #Supercars pic.twitter.com/Yj3ENkLwpu
— Supercars (@supercars) November 17, 2024
Co-commentator and Supercars legend Mark Skaife suggested moving the barrier back and also changing the colour of the kerb.
Skaife noted a literal black spot on the inside kerb, which is painted red, white, and black in line with the event’s branding.
Skaife highlighted shadows cast by trackside trees as a potential problem, although neither Stanaway, nor Reynolds and Hill cited that as being an issue on Friday.
“I think on that inside kerb, what we should do is take the black out of it. So it should just be red and white,” said Skaife.
“All those black pieces there, they should make it red and white because where those shadows were yesterday, I reckon that absolutely caught them out in differentiating between the black shadowed of the bitumen and the kerb itself just in terms of the sight line.”
