MOTORSPORT: Pit stops the parity deal for V8 enduros

That’s the compromise in the great parity row ahead of the V8 Supercar endurance season.

The minimum number of pit stops in the Bathurst 1000 on October 13 and Gold Coast 600 on October 26-27 has not been announced yet.

The V8 Supercar organisers insist E70 – 70 per cent ethanol and 30 per cent unleaded petrol – that two Nissans and one Mercedes ran on the Saturday of the recent Winton 360 gave no performance benefit – something Holden motorsport manager Simon McNamara in particular disputes.

V8 Supercar general manager of motorsport Damien White said Monday afternoon that the organisation’s commission believed pit stops was the “appropriate method to minimise the effect of the current fuel economy variance that exists ahead of these critical endurance events”.

“It was determined that, while there was no material gain in power or performance using the lower blend of ethanol fuel (at Winton), a more effective approach was to ensure everyone was racing on the same basis by mandating the number of pit stops,” White said.

The Nissans driven by James Moffat and Michael Caruso finished first and second on the Saturday at Winton in northern Victoria.

The E70 “trial” was halted after that, with all 28 cars running on the usual E85 again in the Sunday’s two races – won by Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom and Holden Racing Team’s James Courtney.

Nissan Motorsport, which fields four Altimas, and Erebus Motorsport, the team that fields the three Mercs, have sought to use E70 because their four-valve, overhead camshaft engines are reputedly 12 per cent and 7 per cent respectively thirstier than the two-valve pushrod engines in the Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons.

The four stops at Sandown is one more than the Holden and Ford teams would have scheduled for this Sunday’s 500km race.

Marking a return to the emotive parity squabbles of the early days of the V8 Supercar era, Todd Kelly, the owner-driver who has overseen the development of the Nissan Altimas, is angry at not being allowed to use E70.

Kelly said the decision may force Nissan to rethink its involvement in the sport – and deter other potential new manufacturer participants.

The new and potential new “players” could reconsider as they concede a 30-year research and development headstart to Holden and Ford, Kelly told Australian Associated Press.

Nissan and Erebus – an effort with technical assistance from Mercedes-related AMG and HWA in Germany but no support from Mercedes-Benz Australia – entered V8 Supercars this season under the ‘Car of the Future’ rules and Volvo is working on entering with its S60 next season in league with Garry Rogers Motorsport.

“Whether we exit the sport because we can’t afford the R&D … there’ll come a time we have to make that decision,” Kelly told AAP.

“If it was put upon the new manufacturers to reach the current fuel economy and engine parity windows with their own means it may be physically impossible to achieve that with a road car-based engine.

“We certainly don’t have the funds to go through that process and keep putting race cars on the track into the future … there’s no way sponsors and business partners will be that patient while we run mid to late-field to go through that process either.

“It’s a pretty sticky situation where we sit right now.

“Our future is almost in the hands of the sport as to how we can make sure we can all play on an equal playing field.”

The Holden camp, which says that its research with E70 shows it does provide performance benefits over E85, argues that it is “a bit rich” of a new manufacturer participant with more modern and “greener” engine technology to want to use less environmentally-friendly ethanol and more petrol.

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