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A harmful predicament in fashionable racing is when a automobile stalls on the grid throughout a standing begin. The chaotic swarm of high-powered automobiles jockeying for place whereas accelerating in the direction of the primary nook can simply obscure a stationary automobile from drivers additional again within the subject. Most of the time, this results in a driver placing the structural integrity of their automobile to the check and plowing directly into the back of the stalled car. After a heavy crash two weeks in the past, the Supercars Championship in Australia is mandating further measures to prevent start-line collisions.
Through the second of three races at Tailem Bend, Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle stalled his Ford Mustang within the second-place beginning spot on the grid. 4 automobiles instantly behind Randle have been in a position to maneuver round his stalled Mustang. However the fifth automobile, a Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore pushed by Andre Heimgartner, collided with the stalled Mustang. The race was instantly red-flagged so security personnel might attend to each drivers. Fortunately, each Randle and Heimgartner have been in a position to stroll away however have been taken to the hospital for precautionary checks after the 38g impression.
After the incident, Andre Heimgartner said:
“I don’t suppose there was way more we might have accomplished. I’ve watched the onboard from my digicam a number of occasions. After I was driving down there, I had Lee Holdsworth and [Winterbottom]… they each beginning getting into reverse instructions. I couldn’t see via them, as a result of they have been overlapped. The automobile in entrance of Lee swerved final minute to keep away from Randle, after which Lee fortunately managed to get previous him. It had the impact of showing Tom Randle’s automobile in entrance of me. It was fairly scary. I used to be completely not anticipating it.”
Like most main racing championships, marshals are stationed on the pit wall alongside every row of the grid throughout begins within the Supercars Championship. Marshals will wave yellow flags alongside the wall if there’s a stationary automobile or any incident on the grid. Since 2019, Supercars has used an in-car warning system to alert drivers of stalled automobiles on the grid to enhance the marshals.
The in-car warning system makes use of the shift mild module within the sprint to warn drivers. Although this method isn’t designed by the collection, every workforce configures its system individually. This led to a state of affairs the place the sign to shift up throughout acceleration firstly overrode the warning of an incident. A number of drivers identified that they didn’t obtain an alarm till the second nook. In response, the Supercars Championship has mandated a series-controlled configuration for the in-car alarm system. This alteration gained’t be the definitive finish of heavy start-line collisions, however it is going to actually assist forestall them.