Supercars keen on less post-race investigations

The business end of the 2018 season was shaped by a pair of high-profile post-race investigations, both involving title contender Shane van Gisbergen.

The first saw the Kiwi escape a penalty for wheel-spinning during a pitstop at the penultimate round in New Zealand, van Gisbergen keeping his Saturday race win despite both the investigation and a subsequent protest from DJR Team Penske.

The second came during a tense season finale on the streets of Newcastle, van Gisbergen stripped of his Race 1 victory after being found guilty of a refuelling breach.

The resulting penalty turned the title fight from a two-point thriller into a straightforward sixth-or-better scenario for Scott McLaughlin.

While confident in the Supercars rule book, series CEO Sean Seamer admits that he'd like to see less post-race investigations and more decisions made in-race by the Supercars officials and stewards, provided by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport.

That process will be helped by a wider use of Hawk-Eye technology, which will give race control more footage to work with compared to the old system of relying on the broadcast cameras and series-mandated on-boards.

The system, famous for its use in cricket, tennis and football, was introduced to the Supercars stewarding process in Newcastle.

"I think we have got a really good rulebook. If you ask anyone from any other series around the world they will tell you that," said Seamer.

"There are always going to be situations where precedents and interpretations may not be liked by everybody, but the reality is that the stewards do the best job they can possibly do with the information and the time that they have available.

"My view is that what we need to do a better job of is helping the stewards arrive at the decisions in-race, and that is why we have been putting a lot of time and effort into Hawk-Eye.

"Despite the challenges which we have had at Pukekohe, and also at Newcastle, and I know there was some open frustrations around how those results and penalties were arrived at and handed down – there were also a lot of other incidents that were able to be reviewed in-race as a result of Hawk-Eye that we wouldn’t have been able to do.

"Will everybody always be happy with the decision from the stewards?, I think that is unrealistic to expect. Should our fans expect us to at least handle those as much within the race [as possible]? Absolutely.

"We will keep working on that next year."

Seamer stopped short on confirming Hawk-Eye will be present at all rounds, instead insisting it will be used at rounds famous for creating controversy.

"We are working through what the 2019 plan looks like with Hawk-Eye," he said.

"You can expect to certainly see it at the tracks that tend to generate the most controversy."