Safety concerns over V8 Supercar proposals

"The cars naturally lift at high speeds, so the wings are only there to make them closer to their kerb weight at 200kmh. It's simply not worth reducing the aerodynamic weight to less than the kerb weight.

"If you're trying to say that it will be easier to pass because the front car takes off and flips over, then, sure, there will be more passing. Aside from that there's not the slightest evidence it will make passing any easier."

Details of the revamp, designed to reduce costs and also to increase overtaking by reducing the cars' aerodynamic performance, were circulated among the teams last weekend in Darwin by Touring car Entrants Group of Australia, whose technical committee comprises Perkins, Richard Hollway of Holden Racing Team, Jim Stone of Stone Brothers Racing and John Russell from Ford Performance Racing. TEGA chairman Kelvin O'Reilly, who announced the new regulations, is also involved in today's meeting, along with representative Paul Taylor.

Apart from reducing downforce, most of the proposals focus on compelling the teams to use 'control' components to reduce costs. Perkins said he was disappointed with the TEGA board's lack of communication before revealing the changes. "I've spoken to a lot of teams and they're already a bit nervous about what they're reading," he said. "It wouldn't be hard to come to the point of view that TEGA is fairly meagre on providing information to the teams. They say they're trying to reduce costs, and everyone, including me, agrees with that. But on the face of what I've read there will be a lot of unhappy customers having to buy parts they currently get themselves."