Motorsport: Drivers query race officials' late call

Race 2 was red-flagged after an accident took out half of the V8 race under wet conditions. Photo / Geoff Ridder

The opening round of the 2011-12 New Zealand Race Championship was marred by a major accident during the second race of the BNTV8s. Leading round contenders Angus Fogg, Tim Edgell and Australian V8 Supercars driver Jason Bargwanna were all involved in the pile-up heading up the hill on to the front straight.

As the race started rain started to fall and got steadily heavier. Most of the field started on slicks and were soon struggling for serious grip.

Fogg's car lost traction and smacked heavily into the Armco after the pit entrance and speared across the track to hit the safety fence hard enough to raise the car off the grass and plant it heavily nose-first.

The chasing Bargwanna also ended up jammed up against the Armco along with Edgell, Michael Bristow, Simon Evans and Martin Short.

With nearly a third of the field out of action, the officials had no option but to red flag the race. The finishing order was Manuell - the only driver to compete nine laps before the stoppage - from Fogg and Bargwanna.

"The car's had a massive shunt due to hitting the Armco at an acute angle," said Fogg. "The rain just got heavier and heavier and that corner is notorious for being slippery and I got a load of understeer and boom, into the wall."

Bargwanna was at a loss to understand why the race officials didn't red flag the race much earlier.

"I'm really, really disappointed the officials didn't stop the race," said Bargwanna. "I was yelling on the radio it was out of control dangerous. The end result is a lot of cars are buggered which is disappointing for a lot of people."

Edgell is also wondering why the race wasn't stopped.

"I just don't get it. From inside the car I thought the race should have been called [stopped] two laps earlier," said Edgell.

In race one Edgell lead into turn one. With his nose still in front heading on to the back straight, he used his good car speed to pull away from the field and was never headed, taking the chequered flag from Fogg and Manuell.

"For the start of the season it was a pretty good race," said Edgell. "I felt comfortable and we've always had good engines and the car ran well."

Amazingly, all bar two of the damaged cars made it out for the start of the 22-lap race three. Two of the more damaged cars, Fogg's and Bargwanna's, had an opening tussle but as soon as the Aussie got past discretion became the better part of valour in the wet conditions.

Not wanting a repeat of race two's chaos and carnage, all the drivers settled in a routine and stayed out of trouble with Bargwanna leading Fogg and Edgell when the pit window opened.

Edgell was one of the first in and spun along with Bargwanna on returning to the circuit. Edgell repeated his off shortly after, taking Ian Booth with him this time, which left Bargwanna, Fogg and Manuell to round out the top three places.

The circus moves to Ruapuna for round two, December 9-11.

Points after Round One: Angus Fogg 201, Paul Manuell 195, Jason Bargwanna 189, Simon Richards 135, Tim Edgell 129, John Penny 127.