Get ready for the reverse-grid carnage.

by Andy Stobart

Motorsport panel beaters can look forward to a very prosperous 2006 although some teams will feel the pinch. That's the verdict of many drivers in the Australian V8 Supercar Series championship regarding the new reverse grid race for 2006.

Announced to the media and teams and drivers in the V8s on the last race day of 2005, race two on all three race meetings will see the entire grid from the first race results reversed and the winner from the first race start last to attempt to battle through for a points haul worth half that available in the first and third races.

Greg Murphy was just one driver who reckoned the TEGA sanctioned decision was a curious one to say the least.

"I think there was a few people that were half asleep when they made that decision, that one's got me a bit stumped," Murph told Crash.net Radio. "I don't know why you'd want to introduce something like that which is going to cause chaos in V8 Supercars, for people that were trying to reduce costs in this category, I think they've achieved the opposite."

Another driver, one who was involved in something of a rather big accident in 2005, Jason Richards, reckons there's going to be rather a lot at stake with the change.

"It's going to be hell," he told us, succinctly. "We spend a lot of money on crash damage anyway, just through four thousand dollar front spoilers, three thousand dollar rear spoilers, and we basically have to put a new one on of each every weekend, we're probably going to have to do that twice a weekend now.

"That reverse grid race, there's going to be some people getting touched up and there's probably going to be some big crashes, so it's certainly going to expand the costs of the sport, which is not a good thing, we're trying to keep it in control at the moment. But certainly in terms of a spectator spectacle it's going to be probably pretty fantastic."

For the Tasman Motorsport squad, Richards reckons the move will hurt their aspirations to move up the order. "For us it's a little bit disappointing because we're just chipping away at the back half of the top ten on a consistent basis and now we're going to end up probably twentieth on the reverse grid," he says. "It's a bit of a shame, you work so hard to get the car speed, and when you do get it they've gone and reversed the grid on us."

It's not just the younger drivers either, series veteran Glenn Seton reckons the change will be costly. "As a race driver it's disappointing to see. At the end of the day I understand it's an entertainment business, but at the end of the day the important thing is we're racers and we want to race the fastest guy at the front and to have reverse grids then you have a lot of carnage which we've seen in the development series over the year.

"The bloke [Dean Canto] that I drove in Bathurst with got caught up in one of those incidents earlier in the year in the championship and nearly destroyed his championship for the development series so I don't see any benefit in it, I just see it's going to cost the teams a lot of money."

Another driver who had to work his way through the field at Phillip Island was Castrol Perkins driver Steven Richards. With the middle race worth half the points of the two other races on a three race meeting, Richards reckons it's going to be even more of a tactical championship next season. "It's a points game," he says. "You have to score good points in that first race by the sounds of it."

Richards looks back to the races held at Australia's capital city where reverse grids were previously employed. "It's not unfamiliar territory for us, we had three years of it at Canberra at the street circuit," he says. "I'm sure it'll be a bit of a problem for the teams because there's going to be lots more damage, but saying that it should be a lot of fun."

In defence of the move, the Holden Racing Team were quick to issue a statement, with Mark Skaife a member of the board which sanctioned the decision.

"From an overall perspective it's good for the game, and from a driver's perspective I think the best guys will still win," said Skaife "We certainly haven't taken the sport out of the sport, and I think it's going to be absolutely fine."

HRT team-mate Todd Kelly can at least see the potential to achieve good results with the new format. "Next year's championship is going to be really good for us with the reverse-grid races, because that's going to really suit our driving and our cars," he said. "There's only a handful of guys in this series who have the car and the ability to drive through the field when they have to. We've always had a reasonable run at that, and when we find ourselves at the back of the grid for whatever reason, we seem to come through okay so that's going to be a solid asset to have next year."

Stalwart series commentator Barry Oliver reckons there's plenty of scope for damage too. "It's really going to put a lot of pressure on, some crews are saying 'hey, we're going to have to carry more body panels when we go to these race meetings next year'".