As a interested spectator these days, I was appaulded to see blatant miss use of the rules today by not one, but two V8 Supercar Teams, to win the Touring Car Chamionship. Very unsporting behaviour was displayed by two teams owned by one Tom Walkinshaw. Shame Sir that you have degraded a once very proud sport. For those that know what I speak of, there is no need to explain. I favour neither one team nor the other, but to see members of these teams exercise unsavioury sporting behaviour from supposedly the upper end of the circus is without a doubt not going to win them any fans in the future. I only hope that Mr Rolan Dane for the 888 team exercises his right of appeal for the injustice that was dealt out at the hands of the Walkinshaw teams. Up until the third race today, either Ford or Holden could have won, but not when you give your driver instructions that he didn't have to spare the car for next year. In other words giving that driver the nod to take out the opposition if at all possible, of which he did & all he got was a drive through penalty. Meanwhile the opposing team had their car damaged due to such actions, eliminating them from fair competetion. NOT VERY SPORTING at ALL. Cheers Kerry
Mate, i watched the 3 races and R Kelly was let through by the other red cars and then R Kelly pushes Lowndes off. I never did like the Kelly's and now i know why!!!!
All 3 races were great.. But it was a pitty to see both teams act like that... Not good racing in my books at all... Trander was told 6 or so times to let 888 past but no ended up getting black flagged for blocking.. It had been going on in all 3 races... Wonder what will become of it all.. Just hope next year will be an even better season of racing and better people on the telly.... I am a holden fan but at the end of the day it was not good racing what both teams were doing... On a better note Tasman had a good day today was good to see jason richards come from the back to get a good placing.. Always next year boys!!!
certainly a sad way to finish the championship ... but there are stong suggestions that craig l is not without fault/blame.....
teams.. Tander holding up Lowndes was typical, that kinda thing has always been the case in motor racing, Rick tapping Lowndes, I seriously doubt it was his intention to 'rub him out' because thats a drive thru offence, "we don't need the car next year"sounds more like go balls out to me.. in any other race it's was a drive thru, the softest of unintentional contact, if you look at the front on footage it may have been Craig locking the rears first, I would have been happy for either of them to win, Lowndes because he's a class pedler, Rick because he's holding the Holden flag, it was a downer on the last race of the season though...
Lowndes at fault??? I for one, would be extremely interested to hear how the incidents complained of, could in any way be put on Craig Lowndes shoulders. Unless someone was watching an entirely different race meeting than I was, it was blatantly obvious who were the transgressors in all three races. Two black flags and a drive-thru penalty, all from cars owned by the same owner, HELLO! Australian Motor Sport is the poorer because of it.
Not only Tander >> It wasn't only Tander who done the deed. Point 1. In race one Scaife also blocked for several laps & was shown the unsporstmanship flag. And the only comment made was by Rick Kelly after the race, who stated that Lowndes lost control & he was worried when Lowndes re-entered the track. Lost Control, you have to be kidding me. He was forced off the track by Scaife on the exit to a corner. Point 2. Second race, Tander, who was lapping extremely close in the first race with Tod Kelly some 5 - 10 seconds ahead of the field, Suddenly when he has Lowndes behind him, laps some seconds slower per lap. The only thing he didn't do, was Open the Bloody Doors to make his car wider. Point 3. Lowndes had not locked his brakes up coming into the hairpin, but he was braking heavily, thus making the rear of his car lighter with all weight transferred forward. A perfect opportunity to unsettle the car in front presented itself to one Rick Kelly, who was behind Lowndes & his brother. Another point was the start of race three. The flag dropped & all took off over the crest going hell for leather, Tod Kelly in front of Lowndes suddenly slows & Lowndes has to avoid hitting him by moving to the inside. Funny thing that, cause no sooner had that happened & Tod regained his momentum. And no, he didn't miss a gear. Another unsettling tactic, I'm not sure. But interesting when you consider that his brother "Rick" was coming up from behind. In any case, as all would agree, NOT the best way to finish the season after such a close championship. It will leave a sour note on Motorsport for years to come. People remember one other driver who won a Championship with questionable tatics some years ago at Adelaide, in Formula 1. Cheers Kerry
Can imagine How Lowndes felt, i felt cheated and i was only watching it. poor form shown by the holden drivers, with the tactics they were using. Judges decision will be handed down today, and if it remains in kelly's favour, justice will not have been done.
The kelly boys have always been dangerous and that was all a big joke . Holden have been playing dirty tactics for the last 3 rounds. This will go down as the championship that was won by the cheat.... I feel for lowndes as he just goes out and drives and leaves all the other bullshit out of it... No matter what I think all of Australia(well maybe not the diehard commonwhores) know that the true winner was Lowndes
I don't follow V8's that closely, but I did watch this weekend. Since when is blocking a car behind you bad sportsmanship? Unless your weaving all over the road I would have thought it was called racing. What do you want them to do? Tuck their shirt into their nappies and pull off the road? As for Kelly hitting Lowndes that was wrong, but that sort of thing happens all the time in V8's. They're always rubbing each other. In fact didn't Lowndes give Tander a few taps from behind the race before? Assuming Kelly hit Lowndes on purpose it was a very foolish move and he's lucky Craigs car was damaged to the extent it was, otherwise it would have cost him the championship, and still might.
"Since when is blocking a car behind you bad sportsmanship?" Since it was included in the "Instructions to Drivers" regulations(and ever since the term "Sportsmanship" was associated with sport).
Yeah, I think I worded that poorley. What I meant was, since when is defending your position bad sportsmanship. Like I said I don't follow V8's very closely, so I'm not up on all the regulations. I did find it very strange when the commentators where saying, you can't block/defend/whatever, untill the final 3 laps, WTF??? Why are you allowed to drive differently in the last 3 laps, than in the rest of the race? I'm an F1 fan, so my understanding of blocking, is moving over more than once. ie, if someones comming up the inside you can move over to block his line, but then you have to hold that line, if your opponent switches to the outside line, you can't move over again. I didn't see anything like that happening on the weekend. But again I'm not sure of the V8 regulations so the rules may be different.
In F1, "blocking" is defined as moving off the racing line more than twice in order to prevent a following car/driver from overtaking", ie zig-zag, then zig-zag again. It's a BIG no-no! You are only allowed to defend your position by following a legitimate racing line appropriate to that section of the track.
Isn't that what I said? Though I don't think you were quite right. You can zig but you can't zag. ie, go from outside to inside, or inside to outside. What are the V8 rules?
When a car comes up from behind on, say, your left, you are allowed to move left. When same car moves right, you are then allowed to move back to the right. BUT THAT'S IT! As far as I know, this is a standard rule in most forms of motor racing.
