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Van Gisbergen’s act drew the ire of Brown’s then-boss Barry Ryan of Erebus Motorsport, who unleashed in an expletive-laden post-race interview at Sydney Motorsport Park.
That came months after a similar exchange involving van Gisbergen and Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki at Wanneroo Raceway that went unpenalised.
Kostecki was given a bad sportsmanship flag in the midst of the fierce fight – and when van Gisbergen finally got through after some hard-nose racing to win the team launched an ultimately unsuccessful protest.
For the nose-to-tail contact in Sydney, van Gisbergen was penalised five seconds and dropped to seventh while Brown retained his podium finish.
However, Brown admits he engineered the moment.
“I sort of did a professional foul there and let him go,” Brown told Speedcafe.com.
If the same incident happened in the NASCAR Cup Series, where Brown recently made his debut, it would have been play-on.
“You wouldn’t have done that in NASCAR,” said Brown.
“You would have probably done the same in the next corner as what he did to you. That’s the difference.”
Triple Eight ⚔️ Erebus
Relive the podium battle between Will Brown and Shane van Gisbergen that saw the #97 penalised #RepcoSC #Supercars pic.twitter.com/Ud5GYrIYf5
— Supercars (@supercars) July 30, 2023
Brown said there is room for change and for Supercars to adopt a NASCAR-style approach whereby drivers self-police.
However, he isn’t sure how the rulebook would be altered to allow for that kind of racing to occur without throwing the book out entirely.
“The problem is there’s no exact way to change the rules or make it better for the racing,” he said.
“Because if you start punting everyone off every corner, people won’t be happy with that either. I think there’s a happy medium in between.”
At face value, NASCAR may look rough and tumble with its tit-for-tat exchanges but Brown said the drivers are respectful.
Only when one driver gets moved out of the way is there then a free pass for them to retaliate – albeit, within reason.
A self-policing approach is one he’s keen for Supercars to potentially explore.
“I’d say it’s fairly similar [to Supercars] over there,” said Brown of the driving standards.
“They were all very respectful of each other but I think that’s because the fact that if you hit someone, they’ll get you back in the next corner and there’s no penalties.
“So there’s two ways to police it – let the drivers police it themselves and people will stop doing it or the way we do it with penalties.”
Saturday in Sydney wasn’t short on controversy!
Larko details the Race 18 penalties in the Hino Hub #RepcoSC #Supercars pic.twitter.com/wmEFoc2bYL
— Supercars (@supercars) July 30, 2023
That sentiment is shared by Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters.
Waters made his Cup Series debut with RFK Racing at the same Sonoma weekend as Brown made his first start with Richard Childress Racing.
“There are no rules. You can bump someone or move someone out of the way but there’s a level of respect amongst the drivers,” Waters said on Supercars’ Drivers Only podcast.
“If I hit you I know you’re probably going to hit me back, so you try and race cleanly. Whereas, if you’re just holding me up, expect to get moved out the way.
“I thought that was quite cool how they raced. Talking about our series, I think that would be awesome to implement. Just get rid of all the penalties and open it up.
“You want chaos and carnage? That’s probably the best way to do it.”
Waters said Supercars is ultimately an entertainment sport and as the saying goes – rubbin’ is racin’.
For Brown, he believes there is scope for Supercars driving standards advisor Craig Baird to relax the rules.
“Bairdo does the best job for the rule book he has,” said Brown.
“He tries letting as much stuff go as he can but there’s only so much you can let go with how it’s how it’s all worded and how they want the rules played.
“I reckon there is room for change. I reckon whatever makes the show better, to be honest. It doesn’t bother me which way it goes.
“I think racing harder is always a good thing. Sometimes you’ll get served, sometimes you’ll do the serving – you never know.
“There is room for a little bit of change just to make it that people can race a bit harder.”
