Controversy at the Australian Titles

[marcus]

This weekend saw the Australian National Titles take place at Pukapunyal in Victoria (about an hours drive out of Melbourne)

I didnt attend this meeting but I have learned (through some awesome updates and footage on the internet) of the results.

before I go on I must congratulate 2 guys from my local club... Macauley Jones (Son of V8 supercar driver/team owner Brad Jones) who finished third today in Junior National Heavy class and Jordan Boys (who goes to school with my daughter) who finished 5th first time out after stepping up from rookie class into Junior National Light..

But the big contoversy came today in Clubman Super Heavy.

2 drivers were involved in a shotout to the flag Josh Brooker and Scott Simpson , both are deserved winners of the title but sadly Josh was disqualified and Scott was awarded a DNF.

while I am not sure of the absolute details it seems Scott Simpson had contact with another kart during the race , which knocked their nosecone off and it became wedged on his rear crash bar... he would have no idea of the nosecone being there and continued racing but on the last corner of the event Josh Brooker dived down the inside of him and they made contact sending Simpson spinning off the track and Brooker went through to claim the flag and possibly win the national championship...sadly this wasnt to be as the stewards disqualified Brooker from the event and Simpson recieved a DNF for not finishing...

the controversy has continued with Simpson's kart being well outside the rules (the rules state "The maximum overall length of the vehicle shall be 1820mm without nose cone fitted. It is forbidden to have any appendage or protrusion which might be hazardous to other vehicles.")

Therefore the kart would clearly be "oversized" and should have recieved a Black flag but apparently did not.

while I am not debatting the incident because to me it was clearly a racing incident (2 guys arguing over the same piece of road) should the officals have called Simpson in for a mechanical reason ?

To back up this argument Col Fink (of Phoenix karts and kartbook.net fame) managed to catch the incident on film which is able to be viewed which clearly shows the "extra piece of bodywork" on Simpsons kart and a late but yet legal lunge by Brooker to take the lead as the enter the start finish straight.

Its a sad way for a national title to end up but thats what happened and I personally think that Josh Brooker should be awarded the title because it was a racing incident and Simpson (allbeit not to his knowledge) should have been black flagged for a dangerous situation with his kart.

this only happened about 10 hours ago so I am not sure of the outcome but I do know that witnesses were not called upon during the hearing neither was video footage of the incident which simply amazes me.

In this day and age we need better officating than this and I hope that things work out for Josh Brooker , and no offence to Scott Simpson or the 3rd place driver (Ben McKinlay who was awarded the national title) but common sense must prevail and the rightfull driver re-instated as national champion

Your thoughts ?

[Peter Dunne]

Simpson should have been flagged off as that bumper was clearly a potential hazard if it had flown off and whacked a following driver.

That said, he wasn't! So the question has to move to the incident.

Having watched the video a few times (frame by frame) it appears to me that Simpson left the door open on entry to the corner just enough for Brooker to squeeze in. No problems there. As they go around the corner, it seems that Simpson has gone off line to his right but is fully aware that Brooker is on his inside. It looks like Simpson is starting to run out of road (the darker surface on the track shows the line he is trying to regain) and turns into Brooker. Racing incident. QED.

If I was one of the stewards on the day, I certainly would not have disqualified Brooker as if anyone was at fault, it was Simpson.

[ensign14]

I cannot see any reason whatsoever for disqualifying Josh Brooker for that.