Latest / Full Credit to the Noise / NEWS: Who is to blame for Triple Eight restrictor saga?
Transcript
- Speedcafe Team: Hello and welcome to Full Credits to the News brought to you by Authentic Collectibles. My name is Andrew Van Leorn, and I'm joined by Speed Cafe's managing editor, Stefan Bartholomew. Stefan, if we thought we were going to get some sort of reprieve from the big news stories this week after a busy couple of weeks before, we did not get that. It's been another pretty busy week. I'm excited, Andrew. I think this is the earliest we've ever recorded one of these podcasts. It's midday my time on Thursday. So let's ⁓ let's rip in. Let's do it and let's start with what is a pretty explosive story, really, and that is this whole Will Brown engine restrictor saga. So to do a quick recap, Will Brown has been struggling with car speed this year that we know. ⁓ he's been hinting at there being some sort of issue with his Ford Mustang. Triple Eight left Perth vowing to get to the bottom of the issue with Brown's car and now says it has found the problem. So according to Triple Eight, the engine and Brown's car has been fitted with the wrong airflow restrictor across the season so far. It's been fitted with a 49mm restrictor rather than the 50 mil restrictor that is prescribed for the Ford V8 engine. ⁓ now the restrictor is a control part supplied by supercars, and Triple H says it has had a significant negative impact on engine performance and said it would ⁓ it would go to supercars and try and find out how this has happened. Supercars ⁓ then responded. To this discovery outlining that yes, it did provide a 49mm restrictor to AAA, but only for the purposes of its preseason launch event in Geelong. And that was due to parts availability, and the team was never meant to race with that restrictor. And you think that would have been communicated to the team at the time. So it's a bit of he says, she says at the top of this whole thing. I think I guess the biggest burning question here, Stefan, is who is actually at fault? Or at least. Most at fault. I I have my thoughts on this, but I'm keen to hear yours. Yeah, it's the ⁓ the logical question that most people are asking, and I think Supercar's putting in that statement about the fact that it was loaned for the demo event ⁓ clearly puts the onus back on to triple eight. There is some info missing there about who knew what and when exactly, and it does appear that neither party either way has really logged that properly or followed it up. So there is a bit of shared blame there, but the responsibility is ultimately on the competitor for everything on the race car when it goes on the track. So Jamie Winkup's statement yesterday did actually include the words, we as a team are taking responsibility. But the intention of the rest of the statement was clearly to throw supercars under the bus for it. Definitely. And even the the timing of it and the way it came out, Supercars then had to scramble to respond to tell as much of the other side of the story as it could. So there was certainly some interesting language in the Triple Eight statement. Even the bit ⁓ that specified that at 7 PM last night we found a significant issue. It sounded like they were reporting a crime scene. Yeah. More than ⁓ the usual sort of ⁓ team statement. But It did have an underlying tone of the goat looking for a scapegoat. Definitely, because I I actually thought the same thing when I read it because the fact that we take responsibility for this didn't fit in with any of the rest of the statement. The rest of the statement was all about how a a control part had been supplied and it was the wrong part. And ⁓ they'd be going to supercast for answers about that. So yeah, the rollout of it was definitely pretty interesting. Look, my my gut feeling on it is very similar to yours. ⁓ I think that ⁓ Between, you know, this being a powerhouse race team, a very successful race team, and the Ford homologation team, the onus was on triple eight to not let this happen. You know, if they did know the restrictor that went into the car for the preseason launch was only intended for that, how are we eight rounds into the season and only just working out that it's still on the car? You know, like and the the supercar scrutineering process is such that things like this aren't checked on every car at every round. And that's totally fine. That's how the system works. Otherwise we'd spend all weekend scrutineering and not car racing. ⁓ there's also the fact that the restrictor is fitted to the airbox. Well sorry, the restrictor that is fitted to the airbox is not the one that's used when an engine goes on the dyno. So it's not necessarily something that, you know, supercar's engine department could have picked up in a routine check ⁓ or anything like that. So I don't think they should shoulder too much the blame for this not being discovered sooner. So for me It comes back to the team. If if they put the restrictor on the car and they left the restricture in the car and then they took six months to realise that, I don't really see how that's anyone else's fault. And you know, once upon a time you would have kind of gone, there's no way triple eight could make a mistake like this. It's triple eight. They're the details team. They wouldn't have got this wrong. There must be some other external reason why this has happened. But I don't know, in the current guise of Triple Eight and dealing with the Ford homologation team duties and running the third car and And whatever else has been going on, it kind of just doesn't feel overly surprising. And that might sound harsh, but it just triple eight doesn't feel like the perfection per personified team that it once was. It feels like a team that's kind of under a bit of pressure, and this feels like a symptom of that. It does also appear to be a case of a sort of perfect storm on both sides, in how this was a smoking gun that that wasn't found. And you do mention the supercar's scrutineering procedures and the reality is the top finishes tend to get checked more often than those in the midfield or towards the back. So the irony there is that if Will Brown was going better, it would have been discovered earlier. And I believe as part of the scrutineering in ⁓ in Perth, Brock Feeney's restrictor was checked and it was okay. But when you're further back, you're less likely to get checked. So I think the takeout from a supercar side on that front is there'll just be more checks of this overall. But ⁓ yeah, from the team side, again, I guess some irony that they even plucked the engines out after Darwin and did all this dyno testing, but the the part here, the restrictor stays with the car. So they check the engine and it's all fine. They tick that off. And obviously this restrictor is not something that is on the sheet of things to check on the car side. So I think it's important to say there too though, it can be checked by the team. This is not sealed that only supercars can see it. Yeah. ⁓ it's sorta surprising that neither party saw any trace that led them to this in the data that comes from the cars when it's on track. 'Cause normally both parties would be o all over any sort of discrepancy. And so it's sort of funny to think about them running cars with different restrictors at Triple Eight and not seeing it. But ⁓ Yeah, I guess just overall it's just embarrassing for for both parties. But like you say, things get missed when things are rushed and Triple Eight has had a lot on its plate, lots of plate spinning, yeah. Sometimes some of the plates wobble. So Triple Eight has used this figure of ⁓ zero point one five seconds of lap time, ⁓ which is obviously either an average or an arbitrary number because Zero point one five seconds at Albert Park is very different to zero point one five seconds at Wannoroo, for example. But what kind of difference do we feel this has been making? Like I I guess to better phrase it, is this the silver bullet for Will Brown to get back to the front of the field? I said last week with the chassis change that the pressure will be on an Ipswich, come qualifying in particular. And I feel this entire news cycle is just ramping more and more pressure on Will to be back near the front. Yeah, it's funny you mentioned Albert Park because Will Brown scored a poll. At Albert Park, supposedly with the wrong restrictor in it at one of the biggest waterback tracks. So ⁓ yeah, I mean, it's clearly not the whole story because Will struggled last year a lot in qualifying as well. ⁓ it's said to be relatively small, whether it's one or two tenths, whatever, but obviously every little bit matters when the category is so competitive. ⁓ it's also weird that there's been talk out of both sides of the triple eight garage this year about straight line speed problems and when Brock was having his most his biggest issues and was most vocal in Darwin, Will's car was going quicker on the straights than Brock's was, even with a smaller restrictor. So how much of a difference it's really making there, we're not sure. But yeah, you're right. I think the pressure is on Will and Andrew Edwards and everyone on that side of the garage to come out strongly now at QR because ⁓ Triple Eight have put such a spotlight on this specific thing that's been found. But ⁓ you actually look at QR, Will's last win was was there. So I think regardless of this, he probably would have gone pretty well there this year. Yeah. One final point on this, Stefan, and we have asked this question of supercars as to whether there is a case to be made regarding the legality of that car across the eight events so far this season, because Even though it's performance limiting, not performance enhancing, the car was not running to its correct specification. And we've seen cases in the past where cars have been pinged for having, for example, the wrong gearing when it made the car slower. ⁓ and it still becomes an issue for the team. So it will be interesting to see how Supercars tackles that if it truly believes that it wasn't at any significant fault for what happened. Yeah, we've asked the question of just waiting for the answer on it. If I was a rival team. I certainly would have been asking it first thing yesterday when this ⁓ started coming out. But I mean I can't see supercars referring it to the stewards ⁓ because of the overall circumstances and the fact it's a clear disadvantage and probably the fact that ⁓ supercars has presented some what they thought were pretty open and shut cases to the stewards ⁓ in the recent past and haven't got those up either. Yep. Absolutely. All right, let's move on to some other supercars news. Or some supercars and NASCAR crossover news, and that is the fact that we could see another NASCAR cameo on the streets of Adelaide this year for the grand final. And this time it's Toyota and Walkenshaw's looking at doing something. What's the ⁓ what's the story here, Stefan? Yeah, so the story at the moment is that there is a plan afoot to put ⁓ Ty Gibbs in a third Walkenshaw TWG. Supra for the Adelaide Grand Final. It's not locked in. We should definitely stress that. ⁓ it's apparently awaiting sign-off in the United States, which would ⁓ be Joe Gibbs racing it and Ty himself actually committing to wanting to do it. But ⁓ clearly this is ⁓ something that Adelaide is very keen on. We saw Austin Sindrick, ⁓ team Penske driver run with Tickford last year, and again this Gibbs program would be about trying to Give Ty another different road course experience, try and continue to improve what he does on the road courses in the US as they all try to take it to Shane Van Gisburg. And I mean, Ty is one of the best on the road courses. And if you look at the last race in Sonoma, he scored pole and ⁓ was arguably better than Shane in the race, but with the way the ⁓ the strategies and points work there, they decided to flip the stages, which meant he kept having to come from deep in the field on each stage restart. But ⁓ yeah, I think this would be ⁓ fascinating if this happened. Absolutely. All right, now for some news from our friends at Authentic Collectibles. ⁓ we've seen one of the most anticipated Supercars model releases of the year, which is the sleek looking 118 scale replica of the 2025 Bathus 1000 winning Penwright Racing number 100 Ford Mustang GT, driven by Matthew Payne and Garth Tander with a limited run of 2700 pieces that is available on the Authentic Collectibles website right now. But that is not all. The smaller 143 scale and the huge 112 scale versions are coming very soon as well. So if you're looking to complete the full set of 2025 Bathis winners, keep your eyes peeled for that. There is more information over at authenticcollectibles.com.au Authentic Collectibles Driven by Passion made for collectors. All right, Stefan. Now as part of your ⁓ ongoing tour of South Australia pretty much and all all of its ⁓ all of its motorsport delights. You were out at the Colling Grove Hill Climb track earlier this week. What's going on out there? Heading out to the Barossa Valley on a Monday is certainly not a ⁓ tough work assignment, I'll tell you, but ⁓ yeah, they had a ⁓ media event out there on the Monday and then followed up with a ⁓ with another announcement at the Sporting Car Club of South Australia closer to the city on Tuesday. and what they're looking to do is really ⁓ expand the horizons of this ⁓ quite historic venue that ⁓ has run hill climbs out there since 1952. ⁓ they resurfaced it last year and actually extended it. So the actual track itself is as good as it's ever been. But they're currently ⁓ working on building a clubhouse and putting in some other improved facilities out there to ⁓ open it up to more. motoring events, like their ultimate ambition is to have a Goodwood style festival of speed out there. Obviously Goodwood ⁓ revolves around that hill climb. ⁓ so to use that model here would be fantastic. But ⁓ yeah, a big part of this is trying to also open the facility to being more about just cars and motorsport and having markets and music festivals and and food and wine festivals and all those kinds of things out there as well. So they sort of try to re-energize the sporting car club itself and better use this Colling Grove facility. Did you get to go for a spin up the track? I don't know much about the ⁓ about that run there. What's it like? I ⁓ I was a passenger in a couple of cars, including one driven by let's call him R Crail to not ⁓ give away his full ⁓ full name. But yeah, he's super ⁓ exactly well it was actually funny because the Barossa Mare was out there and ⁓ normally one ⁓ refers to Richard as the Barossa mess, so ⁓ it was like seeing double. But yeah, it's ⁓ it's a great ⁓ little hill climb. It's super narrow. ⁓ certainly ⁓ that ⁓ gets your attention when you're going up there at any speed. But ⁓ just a beautiful part of the world there in the Barossa and I really do hope that they can ⁓ they can get some of these events going. Certainly the council is really enthusiastically behind them and they already have a hundred thousand dollars in state government funding to build the clubhouse. So they're hoping to do that within the next twelve to eighteen months. And then a few other tidy ups out there will ⁓ help them really ⁓ hopefully attract some other events. All right, let's finish up with a last bit of Supercar's chat and that is that we do have our full enduro cup lineup now. So if you listen to full credit to the noise on Monday or if you'd been looking at speak FA, you would know That ⁓ unfortunately Cam Crick has decided that he won't be taking part in the enduro's with Matt Stone Racing for health reasons. ⁓ and that has provided a another supercars opportunity for Harry Jones, ⁓ the very well-renowned Porsche driver who drove drove a team eighteen in the supercars enduro's last year. It didn't look like he was gonna get a seat, but he has now scored a seat and a pretty good one as well, alongside Jack LeBrock at MSR. So that was a late change there. And then BJR has finally announced its co-drivers or formerly announced its co-drivers for the enduro's. We kind of knew what was going on there. There were no surprises. So we'll have Bryce Fulwood returning to that team to partner Andre Heimgartner and then Brad Vaughan alongside Cam Hill and Jordan Boyce alongside Macaulay Jones there. And that, yeah, that puts a bow on our entire co driver field, Stefan. Yeah, it's ⁓ it's exciting. We're not far away from Enduro's now and that in Juro season really starts as soon as the sprint cup finishes with a test day out there at QR. So ⁓ it's good always to have the the full list on the page. Obviously it's got a bit different feel this year with no Jamie Winkup and no Garth Tander. There's ⁓ ten Peter Brock trophies like off the off the table immediately. Yeah. But as is always the case, there's the the churn and and you look at the list and you see Nick Perk at James Courtney and Will Davison. They're probably the the stars that'll come back into the field as co drivers. Only six driver lineups from last year are still actually in play for this year, which ⁓ is a low number, but I think there were seven carried over from twenty four to twenty five, so not extraordinarily low. But yeah, l some of those carryovers are in the key cars as well. Yeah, Chaz Mostett, Fabian Coulthard, Cam Waters, Mark Winterbottom, Brody Kastecki, Todd Hazelwood, Will Brown, Scott Pye. So ⁓ Yeah, there's ⁓ a lot of contenders. Absolutely. It is always an exciting time of year. I'm very much looking forward to it. All right, I think that will do us for full credit to the news this week. Make sure you do stay tuned to Speed Cafe across the weekend. There is, of course, the ASA Race Series round on the fight in the night at Queensland Raceway, which will be very exciting to follow along. And we'll have all of the action from Ipswich on specafe.com across the weekend. And then full credit to the noise, we'll be back in this podcast feed next Tuesday morning.