Holden Racing Team owner Ryan Walkinshaw says revisions need to be made on side impact safety following James Courtney’s great escape at Phillip Island earlier this year.
With a side impact collision standing as the most vulnerable part of the car, Walkinshaw has called for the issue to be addressed by V8 Supercars.
Courtney suffered a fractured right tibia and torn quad muscle when Alex Premat’s out-of-control Fujitsu Commodore slammed side on into the HRT driver in a freakish accident.
The accident broke the Car of the Future’s control side intrusion bars, raising concerns over the side impact safety.
“There’s improvements there (over the previous gen cars) but there is still plenty of work to be done,” Walkinshaw told Speedcafe.com.
“Hopefully that will be addressed by the technical teams at V8 Supercars and we can all go forward knowing those drivers are as safe as possible.
“These cars are a little bit more fragile than we hoped there would have been,” he continued.
“Garth’s (Tander) incident into the tyre barriers in Sydney demonstrated that. There was a lot more damage to the chassis than really there should have been.
“At the same time you look at it and if James had the old driving position we may not be talking to him.”
V8 Supercars mandated the FIA standard 8862 seat with the new-for-2013 COTF in a bid to improve driver protection.
The category also worked with the world motorsport governing body’s safety arm in France on the car’s side-impact design and, following Phillip Island, has promised to “continue to work with key stakeholders to ensure we remain aware of what best practice is now and how to plan to introduce future improvements”.
Courtney was a spectator at the season-ending Sydney 500 and has since heading to the UK for the Christmas/New Year break.
“I won’t be able to run or do anything until mid-January,” Courtney told Speedcafe.com.
“It hasn’t prevented me from doing upper body stuff. I just can’t do any impact stuff.
I will get more scans and see the doctor when I get back home on the Gold Coast.”
Courtney said HRT were looking at ways to improve driver side impact however being a control category there are limits over what can be done.
“I think with anything we can definitely learn something from it,” he said.
“The accident was pretty freaky the way it all happened, but I’m still here.
“Our guys are already looking at improving things a little bit in terms of side impact.
It has definitely got everyone’s attention now.”
Missing Sydney caused Courtney to drop to 11th in the final championship standings.
The 2010 V8 Supercars Champion with Dick Johnson Racing, Courtney had finished 10th in each of his first two seasons with the HRT.
