GR86 drivers given a Rev-Up

The recent behaviour of a number of drivers in the Bridgestone GR86 Championship has raised a few eyebrows, especially at their third round held at Teretonga Parka in January 2025. 

Twenty-three different ‘Notification of Decisions from the Race Director’ were issued over the three-race weekend, and the standard of driving was the talk of the paddock.

Nearly two-thirds of those decisions were to do with rookie drivers, several of these had more than one decision made against them.

So, what were these decisions about?

Four were to do with breaching track limits, approximately nine were to do with avoidable contact, while the others were to do with impeding a fast lap, breaking parc ferme conditions, ride height and so on.  Disturbingly, one was for abuse of a gate official at the previous Hampton Downs round while another was for verbal abuse of another team member, both of these were by the same driver.

Word has it that all 25 drivers were given a rev-up before the start of their fourth round a week later at the NZ Grand Prix event a week later at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell.

So, did this make a difference?

In some ways yes.  Fifteen decisions were handed out over the Highlands round, eight for breaching track limits (which affected all categories at Highlands), six for avoidable contact and one for a technical infringement. The good thing is that a number of drivers who infringed at Teretonga kept their noses clean at Highlands.

So why so many infractions at Teretonga?

Immaturity, maybe? A sense of entitlement, in some ways! A lack of respect for their competitors, their equipment, their team and for their bill payers (sponsors), quite possibly. A lack of emotional regulation, well that has to be part of it!

Do young drivers understand that the way they go about conducting themselves on and off the track sets a reputation that can quite possibly be with them for life?

What young lads need every so often is a reiteration of where the boundaries are and that is what a rev-up is for. I know, as my father would have to periodically deliver this to my brothers and I when we pushed the limits. And it worked!