Mark Winterbottom leads Garth Tander and Craig Lowndes at last year's Gold Coast race. Who will be their partners in their enduro partners at the track this year?

Well gang, the announcement of the Gold Coast SuperCARnivale has sure got opinions divided.

One of the main emails this week comes from Mick in Queensland …

Q: I have just heard about and read about the changes to the Gold Coast event, one that will doubtless ensure that this year will be the last event held on the strip. In my opinion, they have ruined the already crowded nature of the circuit by shortening the track in half, and bringing over a number of drivers who have little to no experience in the cars for a so-called ‘International Component’.

My prediction is for carnage and the costs for the teams to skyrocket once again, not to mention that someone’s championship could be ruined by a total novice (unlike in the normal enduros where most of the endurance drivers have some experience driving the cars). Do you think this format has a future or will it die a quick death? (MJ, QLD)

A: Well Mick, the release sent out by V8 Supercars Australia on Monday with further clarifications to the format has answered some of my questions but still leaves a few remaining.

Firstly, I kind of like the concept because it’s just plain different, but it does potentially have a bit too much ‘novelty’ factor for my liking for a championship points-paying event.

My gut tells me it would be better to make this a non-title event with no points, just some good hardcore racing and celebrate the involvement of some great stars from other series.

If there are no points to race for, let’s put some cash on the line.

Drivers like cash as much as we all do!

In regards to the internationals racers in the format, I’ll reserve my judgement until I see the remaining 13 drivers that are signed up.

It’s critical that the 18 international drivers have credentials, and not be sitting on them from too long ago. From the first five announced, I would have to wind back the calendar a bit to find when Christian Fittipaldi and Mark Blundell last raced something of significance, for example.

David Brabham and Alex Tagliani are great choices given their V8 experience and history in this country and both are racing this year in ALMS and IndyCar respectively.

Scott Pruett, even at age 50, is as fit and race-hungry as you will find. Tune into the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series on TV during the year and you’ll find a very lean and mean fighting Pruett machine who is still beating blokes many years his junior for Chip Ganassi’s team.

Supercar cynics will point to his Bathurst start in 1997 as a reason why he won’t cut it. But the GC track is a different beast to the Mountain. He’s a pro and will probably get more time in a V8 Supercar in the lead-up this year than in 1997, so that will go a long way!

I don’t think shortening the track will ruin the nature of the circuit. Remember, the long straights into the slow corners at turn three and the beach chicane at turn five were largely responsible for the high brake temperatures and therefore lack of passing.

A shorter track might help actually improve the racing.

Sure, most of the internationals have little or no experience in our V8 Supercars, and not on the Gold Coast. So should we not let Karl Reindler and Daniel Gaunt run given it’s their first time there too in a V8 Supercar, despite racing internationally in a range of categories?

Of course not.

And anyway, when has there not been carnage on the Gold Coast?

As Jamie Whincup – who is one of the best touring car pilots in the world – pointed out this week on Speedcafe, he was the worst offender for carnage last year up there! It can happen to the best of them!

Today, the rules of the event were clarified further after an extraordinary V8 Supercars Australia board meeting last week. Initially the rules would be that an international driver had to be in a team’s line-up, although the Primary drivers (ie. regular team drivers) could be paired together and, effectively the international driver could pilot the second entry.

This has been changed – and I don’t rate it.

My opinion on this rule change for the other enduros is well documented but I do understand both sides of the equation.

However, we still don’t know how the 18 drivers will be allocated to their teams. And that leaves another huge question in this whole setup.

So, say a team has both its Primary drivers in title contention. One of them can use the experienced guy they saddled up alongside at Phillip Island and Bathurst, the other is left with a driver who, despite previous good overseas credentials, will have just one day testing at Queensland Raceway and won’t be able to match the co-driver in the other car, and thus places one team driver at a clear disadvantage to the other – all because of the event format.

It could totally cripple a driver’s championship challenge and in even more of a random manner than the regular enduros where teams at least – despite the new driver rules – can sign their drivers without specific limitation, eg. that one driver must be an international.

The original idea was better. It gave us the international drivers, but would give teams the option of protecting their championship-contending drivers from this curve ball.

But to find a positive, this move brings the Gold Coast driver rules into line with the new rules for the other two endurance races, thus minimising confusion in ‘fan land’ over one system for two enduros and another for the Gold Coast.

One positive doesn’t outweigh the other negatives I’m afraid.

Each REC (licence) holder must have an international driver acceptable and agreed by V8SA, so therefore a third car like Jonathon Webb from DJR (with its REC owned by Steve Webb) must have an international, whereas Jim Beam Racing only needs one across its four driver line-up, despite being under the same preparation umbrella. The same will be the case for Karl Reindler’s Britek/Fair Dinkum Sheds Commodore from the Brad Jones workshop, Paul Dumbrell’s Bottle-O car from FPR and Tim Slade’s Wilson Security machine from SBR.

Initially it had been announced that the international drivers would have a race on the Friday – this has been amended to a special practice session of at least 30 minutes.

Big tick to that.

A chance to become acquainted with the track and further experienced in the cars without the red mist that racing brings. A good idea.

To answer the last part of the question, I think this format isn’t ideal, but it gives the event a future.

Ideally, a deal would have been struck with IndyCar a few years ago and we’d still be having a belter of a double-billing. The mooted replacements of the GT1 World Championship and GP2 Series just don’t stack up so this is what we’ve got so let’s make the most of it.

But the key is having some good name drivers and no wash ups.

If the international crop of 2010 go back home and spread the word, the quality of drivers who want a piece of the Gold Coast race in the future will no doubt increase.

We need the likes of Jacques Villeneuve (sure, seems a bit washed up but he’s a name the general media will know – critical), Paul Tracy, Sebastien Bourdais, Andy Priaulx, Yvan Muller, Alain Menu, Tom Kristensen and Mattias Ekstrom.

Hell, Nigel Mansell is racing at Le Mans this year. Now that’s a name with Gold Coast-winning history (1993) and will get us some headlines around the world, which some of the other drivers just will not, despite their great pedigrees and profiles within the world of racing.

And please, Mr Penske, please let Will and Ryan come home and play for a weekend! They both have played with us before and if one of them could win the Indianapolis 500 this year, that would be very nice too …. And great for pre-event promotion!

And Mr Ganassi, Dario and Scott would find a red car to drive here no worries, we promise! There are red cars everywhere in V8 Supercars! My memory recalls Dixon testing the Young Lions Commodore at Calder in late 1997 as a prize for his efforts in Formula Holden that year. Ah, memories.

We’re not going to get the likes of Formula 1 and NASCAR drivers given their racing calendars (how much would both Marcos Ambrose and Dale Earnhardt Jr want to come and do it!!), but throw in some IndyCar guys, add a dash of World Touring Car Championship lads, some Sportscar dudes and a few legends still with the need for speed and you have something really different and interesting.

But it’s got us all talking and the media writing. That’s great. We need more news, more things happening and more things to debate.

I’m busting to see who is on the nomination list in March and turns up in October – and I’m also sorry for such a long column. Clearly my passion has re-woken after an off-season slumber!

But I just hope this novelty format doesn’t cost someone a championship …. That would be bloody wrong …

Keep the emails rolling into the Café for me to answer. I’m off to the Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour this weekend and then boarding the plane to the Middle East so keep them rolling in.

Email me – aaron.noonan3@bigpond.com and I look forward to answering as many of them as I can via the column. Please try and keep them to the point and to one particular question/topic.

You can follow me on Twitter too – @aaronnoonan – so keep in touch!