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The spectacle of a fair fight to the finish in next week's Bathurst 1000 is under threat.
Several teams claimed they were disadvantaged during the running of the recent Sandown 500 and one senior team manager said yesterday similar complaints could be aired at Bathurst.
Cars driven by leading Holden drivers Greg Murphy and Todd Kelly, as well as Ford's Mark Winterbottom, were among the victims of safety car confusion at Sandown.
Those cars were running at the front of the race but were effectively placed a lap down by the positioning of the safety car after a mid-race incident.
The confusion arises when the safety car has to pick up the leader of the race with various cars diving in and out of the pits to take advantage of the slower lap times.
Those who have already pitted stay out, while others turn off into pitlane to make a compulsory stop.
At Sandown, where Craig Lowndes was deemed to be the leader, Murphy, who was sixth, and others found themselves in front of Lowndes because of the positioning of the safety car.
They were then almost obliged to concede position to the leader once the race resumed at full speed and they went a lap down.
Murphy's boss Jeff Grech says officials should wave the cars in front of the leader around to the back of the field. Some officials believe such a move advantages those cars but Grech says while they gain ground they do not gain position.
The debate basically comes down to a difference of opinion between the American and European systems of racing.
Grech supports the American system which operates currently in NASCAR while some V8 officials believe they should stick to the more traditional European system.
“If we are not careful we are going to have the same situation at Bathurst which we had at Sandown,” Grech said yesterday. “The problem is easily rectified by allowing the safety car to wave cars past until the actual race leader is first in line,” he said.
“What you are doing is tidying things up. The leaders don't lose because they now have a clean track ahead.
“The cars being waved around are lining up at the back of the queue and still have traffic to get through.
“But what you are not doing is ruling those cars out, which was what was effectively done to five or six of them at Sandown.”
Grech says there is almost unanimous agreement among teams and drivers that the system should be changed.
However The Daily Telegraph understands that officials led by former F1 racer Tim Schenken are split.
