Support categories are getting the rough end of the pineapple.

It’s high time that Supercars and ARG (Australian Racing Group) showed their respective support categories greater respect. Having said that, it’s also a two-way street, as I’ll explain.

The 2022 season has been a litany of disasters for support categories that run on the undercard of the two headline categories in Australia, Supercars and TCR. They’ve had to endure shortened races, abandoned races and too many Safety Car laps.

That’s meant that the value for money offered by Super2/3, Carrera Cup, Porsche Challenge, Trans Am and GT (to name the main ones) has been very average.

There’s no doubt that there are occasions when there are circumstances (such as weather) beyond the control of the organisers on the day. Yet scheduling of race distances with a time certain finish that allows, in Super2/3 for instance, for almost no Safety Car laps is not smart.

One of the major reasons for this is the seemingly never-ending quest to put as many categories onto the race card as possible – clearly to garner as many entry fees as possible.

That’s all very well, but it gets to a point where real estate is being sold that doesn’t exist.

I mentioned earlier that this is actually somewhat of a two-way street. What I mean by that is that there is a responsibility on the drivers to ensure that they race smart….