Frightening crash triggers Supercars change

The second of the three heats at The Bend got off to a bruising start when Thomas Randle stalled on the line and was subsequently collected by Andre Heimgartner.

Both cars were effectively written off and both drivers treated for minor injuries in hospital.

Following the crash there was conjecture over the effectiveness of the in-car warning system used by Supercars teams, with some lead drivers critical, saying they only received the warning lights after getting to Turn 2.

Others, however, said the lights were illuminated immediately.

As revealed on the Castrol Motorsport News podcast in the days following The Bend, teams have until now been left to configure the warning system as they please as part of their shift light module.

That raised the question as to whether it was individual configurations, rather than the system itself, that was the issue,

That question has seemingly been answered with the Supercars Commission voting to mandate a controlled configuration for the stalled car alarm for all events moving forward.

"Following the incident at Tailem Bend involving Andre Heimgartner and Thomas Randle, the Supercars Commission has agreed to mandate a controlled configuration for the stalled car alarm as part of the In-Car Warning System for this weekend’s Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint," read a statement from Supercars.

"Representatives from Repco Supercars Championship teams discussed and agreed to mandate a dash configuration that ensures all drivers will receive a full in-car warning, which will be sent directly to the dashboard and shift light modules.

"This will ensure other warning alarms already programmed for display on the dash do not receive priority during the start procedure.

"Previously, the displays controls were left to the teams discretion.

"The update to the In-Car Warning System will be mandated for all events moving forward."

The in-car warning system was debuted at the Bathurst 1000 in 2019 after being trialled at the Supercars-run Bathurst 12 Hour earlier that same year.

However unlike the 12 Hour system, which used its own shift light module, the Supercars teams have been able to incorporate the system into their own SLM with complete freedom until this mandate.