EXCLUSIVE – Saturday Night rule change at Adelaide saves Skaife's skin
10/4/2000 10:37 (Shane Rogers) - A Saturday night rule change by V8Supercar Teams prevented a Mark Skaife disqualification from the second race of Clipsal 500 yesterday. The V8Supercar supplementary regulations were amended on Saturday Night after teams complained about the unfairness of regulation 2.5.7.
The original 2.5.7 stated that “A competitor will be deemed to have commenced a CPS (Compulsory Pit Stop) when the car stops at its pit bay for the purpose of carrying out a CPS.” It is to be read in the context of rule 2.5.6, which states “No competitor is permitted to commence a CPS while the Safety Car
Board is displayed, but any CPS commenced before the Safety Car Board is displayed will count as a CPS.”
The problem with the rule was that if a car entered the pit lane before the Safety Car Boards were displayed, and stopped at it’s pit bay after the Safety Car Boards were displayed, they would have to drive through the pit lane (at the speed limit), and make their compulsory pit stop later in the race.
On Saturday, there were doubts about whether Glenn Seton stopped before the Safety Car Boards were shown. It was then decided on Saturday Night that rule 2.5.7 be changed to read something like “A competitor will be deemed to have commenced a CPS when the enters the pit lane for the purpose of carrying out a CPS.”.
TV Coverage of Mark Skaife’s second pitstop on lap 35 of race 2, clearly show him stopping in his pit bay after the Safety Car boards were displayed. Additionally, they show almost as conclusively Skaife entering the pit lane before the Safety Car boards were displayed.
Therefore, if the original 2.5.7 applied, Skaife would have been forced to take the action described earlier or risk disqualification. Fortunately for Holden Racing Team, the rule was changed. Changed just in time.
This is not the first time that the regulations have been changed for the Clipsal 500 between races. In the first event last year, the regulations were changed to allow cars (including eventual race 2 winner, Craig Lowndes, although he won his appeal from disqualification) that had not finished or had been disqualified, to start on equal footing to the rest of the field.
The original 1999 rule stated that the cars must start leg 2 credited with the amount of laps completed in leg 1. This was changed on Saturday Night to allow many cars who did not finish Saturday’s race to start the Sunday event.
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