BARRY Rogers has downplayed growing talk surrounding visible distortions spotted across Garry Rogers Motorsport’s fleet of Turtle Wax Trans Am Series cars.
While the matter has been a topic of conversation within the paddock for months now, it was thrown into the spotlight on Monday when rival driver Jon McCorkindale took to social media to post photos following the latest round at Queensland Raceway.
McCorkindale made clear to V8 Sleuth that he is not accusing GRM of cheating, nor does he necessarily believe the team will suddenly come back to the pack if a fix is mandated. GRM duo Nathan Herne and Owen Kelly sit first and second in the standings.
He did however make the observation that the bowing in the roof/rear window seems to be exclusive to GRM cars.
In his post, McCorkindale did also point to a 2018 news article whereby NASCAR had clamped down on what appears to be a similar issue.
Former Super2 and Super3 stalwart McCorkindale said various drivers have raised the matter with competition officials.
Somewhat awkwardly, Rogers is a key figure in both GRM and the Australian Racing Group, which owns the category. That is hardly unprecedented though – for example, Roger Penske owns the IndyCar Series as well as leading squad Team Penske.
When approached by V8 Sleuth, Rogers was relaxed.
“Actually the cars just got back and Lochie [Dalton]’s car, the strut in between the rear part of the rollcage to support the roof, it has totally collapsed in there,” he said.
“I mean, with Trans Ams, if you stand on the top of the window there’s certainly flex there.”
Rogers admitted he’d noticed the distortion effect previously at Phillip Island but assured there was nothing sinister going on.
“Unless you remove the rollcage out of the car, you can’t sort of do too much,” he said.
“As I say, there’s little struts in the back that hold them up and one of them collapsed – looking in the car before, one of them is bent.
“Nathan and Owen’s cars are what they are, so I really don’t know.”
He nevertheless was unperturbed about McCorkindale’s move.
“I don’t mind, we need a bit of rivalry. I reckon that’s good,” said Rogers.
Two rounds remain on the 2022 calendar: Sandown next month, before the season finale at the Bathurst International on November 11-13.
Rogers made a point of praising QR owner Tony Quinn for his work on the Ipswich facility; the weekend SpeedSeries action was the first major event since the completion of upgrades.
“Credit to him. It didn’t surprise me because that’s what you expect from Tony, but good on him,” said Rogers.
“Thank goodness there are people like him involved in motorsport.”
