Sweeping changes revealed for 2009

13/09/2008 A raft of widely anticipated changes to the sporting regulations of V8 Supercars will spearhead the biggest shakeup in the sport's history for the 2009 championship.

Category chairman Tony Cochrane confirmed today that a brace of changes intended to spice up the competition will be rolled out for the 14-round championship.

“I think these changes will add enormously to our appeal and increase our fan base,” Cochrane said.

Details of the exact make-up of the 2009 calendar have been delayed for several reasons, but Cochrane stressed that it is not solely due to the much talked about street race at the Sydney Olympic precinct at Homebush Bay.

V8 Supercars chief executive Wayne Cattach said that the changes have been brought about following input from team owners, drivers, fans and officials.

Central to the changes is the introduction of a soft compound tyre that is aimed to add to the strategy equation.

The soft tyre, of which four sets out of 12 will be allocated, will be reserved for two-race weekends at Winton, Symmons Plains, Hidden Valley, Sandown, Queensland Raceway and Barbagallo Raceway.

Three-heat sprint weekends have been abolished along with a change to the third part of the knockout qualifying system, which will now include the return of the top 10 shootout.

What triggered the re-introduction of the shootout was the advice from series broadcaster Channel 7 which claims that the single lap flying action generates greater entertainment appeal on television.

Cattach conceded that V8 Supercar racing had become a bit processional over the course of the last couple of years, and as all sports inherently do, needed to reinvent itself.

“I think that any product that has been around as long as ours needs to be critically looked at from time to time and obviously freshened up,” Cattach said.

“We looked back from a clean sheet of paper and from the bottom up we are trying to build more entertainment for the fans.”

Officials have reserved the right to modify changes to the soft tyre compound if it is felt that it is not triggering some “interesting strategies”.

“We reserve the right to suck it and see,” Cattach said.

“We hope that by allowing the discretion of the team manager's that we will get some interesting strategies coming out.

“If they all fall into line then we might make some changes midway through the season.”

The soft tyres will not be allowed to be used for practice or qualifying and will be specially marked so they are easily identifiable to fans in races.

V8 Supercars says it has tried to heighten the entertainment value of racing without using contrived or artificial means and increase the number of variables, which can influence a result.

Other key changes are:

*The removal of specific pit stop windows.

*Confirmation of the use of cleaner 85 per cent E85 ethanol fuel.

*The winner of the feature race on Sundays (like the Clipsal 500) will be deemed the winner of the event.

*At Winton, Symmons Plains, Hidden Valley, Sandown, Queensland Raceway and Barbagallo the points allocation is 100 for race 1 and 200 for race 2.

*The points split at all other races is 150 for both races except for Phillip Island (50 points for races 1 and 2 and 200 for race 3 and Bathurst which issues 300 points to the winner.

*Refuelling will be mandatory in every race.

*Other work such as tyre changes is permitted during refuelling.

*Only 6 crew members will be permitted across the prescribed line during any pit stop.

*Cars will be permitted to overlap but not pass prior to crossing the control line at a restart.