Nissan assessing Supercars leg protection options

With the leg tray system built for the DJR Team Penske Falcon not a direct fit to the Altima, the Melbourne-based squad is in the process of determining whether the best option is to alter the existing product or develop something bespoke.

According to team boss and driver Todd Kelly, clear direction from the Supercars commission regarding what will and won’t meet requirements will play its part, given that the high-tech materials involved make modifying the existing system complicated.

Either way, the team is hoping to have something sorted well in advance of the Sandown 500, where additional leg protection will become mandatory.

“We are working on something,” Kelly told Motorsport.com.

“The initial one that DJR has won’t fit in our car, so we’re waiting to find out through the commission what the plan is, whether we have to get it through one supplier, or whether there is a spec we can make it to, and all that.

“It’s a high-tech, expensive bit of gear to start hacking into to make it fit into a car. It’s been done properly, they’ve done a really good job of it. You can’t really go down to Bunnings and get some fibreglass and knock one up, it’s a fairly decent process to get to the point where you can put it in the car.

“I think there might be a couple of other options we can look at to get it done. Now that that’s getting finalised, we’re going as fast as we can to get it sorted.”

The issue was thrust into the spotlight for Nissan by the melee in Tasmania, Rick Kelly suffering mild injuries to his leg after it hit the gear shift during the side impact from Will Davison’s Tekno Commodore.

According to older brother Todd, the impact would have been significantly worse with the current cockpit set-up, and a lot better with an improved protection system in place.

“Rick was really lucky,” he added.

“He got a decent whack in the leg, which would have been a lot less severe if we would have had [the system] in the car.

“It could have been a lot worse, too, so we were quite lucky.”

DJR Team Penske currently runs the system, while Prodrive Racing Australia has fitted the same system to Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert’s cars, and is planning to roll it out over its other two cars over the next few rounds.

Triple Eight, meanwhile, has called for a switch to paddle shifts, which it says would eliminate the need for convoluted leg protection systems altogether.