Taken off the V8 Supercar webite 11/9/08
V8 Supercars Australia has moved to clear up a gray area in the rules where teams were potentially able to gain an unfair aerodynamic advantage.
A technical clarification dated July 22 ? between the Queensland Raceway and Winton rounds of the Championship ? and which came into effect immediately, was confidentially sent to all V8 Supercar teams.
It indicated that some teams had been fixing ballast plates to the cross member of their cars, effectively extending the undertray.
The primary purpose of ballast plates is bring the cars up to their minimum weight of 1355kg as per the regulations.
?The cross member ballast plates being used by some teams have been discussed by the TAP (Technical Advisory Panel) and with information gathered from the recent aero test, where the effect of these were tested, it has been decided to standardise the position of the ballast being placed on the cross member,? the clarification read.
It then went on to state that any team carrying ballast plates on the cross member could only attach it to a certain area, which was outlined in a diagram accompanying the clarification.
The diagram showed that the ballast plate must go on the passenger side of the car and must not connect the undertray to the cross member.
V8 Supercars Technical Director, Andy Bartley, said there were ?a few teams? who could have been perceived as having an aerodynamic advantage in the way the ballast plates were fixed to the cross member.
?There was a bit of a misunderstanding as far as the cross member is concerned,? he said.
?Some people believed some teams were trying to obtain an aerodynamic advantage, basically by under-sheeting the undertray.?
Bartley said the technical clarification of where ballast plates could be placed on the cross member was sent to all teams to remove the potential for an unfair aerodynamic advantage.
?In the rule book there are a few areas that are a bit gray and over time Steve Brow, Frank Adamson, Kurt Skazewski and myself (VESA Technical Department) are working together to rid any gray areas in the Operations Manual,? he said.
?Obviously there are guys out there that are trying to take advantage of the rules, but that?s the nature of the business.
?Nobody was breaking the rules as such because there wasn?t a rule there and the technical clarification was put in place to make sure no one was getting an advantage.?
Bartley wouldn?t be drawn on which teams were forced to change the positioning of their ballast plates.
BigPond Sport asked the four teams currently on the top of the V8 Supercar Championship point?s table if they had ever used ballast plates as an aerodynamic device.
Both Holden Racing Team?s Mark Skaife and HSV Dealer Team?s Erik Pender said they had used ballast plates on the cross member in the past, similar to the way they are now allowed to be used.
They said the plates never connected the cross member to the undertray and therefore never gave the cars an unfair aerodynamic advantage.
Skaife said it was ?absolutely physically impossible? to attach ballast plates to the undertray of a Commodore in such a way that an aerodynamic advantage could be gained.
Bartley said a belief that Ford could gain an aerodynamic advantage from the ballast plate positioning was ?the way that some people see it?.
Skaife said he had heard that some Ford teams were using the ballast plates to gain an unfair advantage.
?And it disappoints me this sort of thing has slipped through the cracks,? he added.
Ford Performance Racing (FPR) Team Manager Tim Edwards said his team had not used ballast plates on the cross member.
?Ours is still all open and always was open,? he said.
Edwards said it was ?clutching at straws? to suggest that uncharacteristic mistakes made at Winton Raceway by FPR driver, and then Championship leader, Mark Winterbottom, were caused by changed aerodynamics.
?We were in pole position and Frosty was leading race one until he had that puncture and we clearly had the fastest car,? he said.
Edwards said FPR had sought permission to use the ballast plates before the technical clarification had come into effect.
?We unofficially asked in the past and were told it was not in the spirit of the rules,? he said.
Team Vodafone Race Motor Engineer Campbell Little also said that his team had not used ballast plates on the cross member to gain an aerodynamic advantage.
He said that the Brisbane-based team had fitted the plates following the technical clarification, but only as shown by the accompanying diagram.
) and it didnt matter what was done, they always won.
