Spoiling the fun

I must say I was disappointed the officials decided on Saturday to ban burnouts as post-race celebrations. It's a tradition in all motorsport and it's part of what makes it a spectacle for the fans.

The ludicrous situation is that the V8 drivers were banned, but the superbike riders who shared the event with us weren't, so we had BMW rider Glenn Allerton doing a burnout after his event win, but Jamie couldn't after he won the main event of the program.

It comes back to the burnout display by Shane Van Gisbergen at the previous round. It's got nothing to do with setting a bad example. In fact, it shows the driver's skill level to be able to control the vehicle. Instead, it's got everything to do with getting back to the grid for post-race TV interviews.

Maybe Shane's display was a bit over the top, but it was his first race win and it was on home soil, so I think it was an exceptional case. The other burning issue is the massive fire in the starting grid crash in the first race on Sunday. I haven't spoken with Steve Owen or Karl Reindler but I spoke with Steve's crew and they said he's ok and I hear Karl is too although he might need some time for his hands to heal.

The burns to his hands are what's got me. His suit withstood the fire, but somehow his hands got burnt. I'm also concerned about the window net melting. While the marshals did a great job, I think we need a thorough investigation of the cars, the starting grid procedure, flag marshals, fire marshals and everything.

It's a very rare situation. Usually the drivers can see a stalled car and avoid a straight-on hit at high speed, but Steve was totally unsighted until the last second when David Reynolds deviated. The last big starting grid shunt I can remember involved Mark Larkham and Paul Morris at Oran Park in the late 1990s.

It might be rare, but it's worth a thorough investigation to prevent it happening gain. I was happy with the weekend results, even though we could have done better on tyre wear. We'll sit down and analyse it when we get back on Friday. The last time we were in Perth in 2009 I was able to conserve my tyres, even the soft tyres.

This time they just melted. However, it's the first time we've been here with a Holden. The car set up seemed to be working really well, so I'm not sure if it's my style or the car set up that's to blame.