AASA makes off-track improvements

In 2026 the Australian Auto-Sport Alliance (AASA) will have a renewed focus on driver communication and use of flag marshals for circuit racing activities in 2026.

Flag marshals, in particular the Official Starter on pit straight will communicate crucial information throughout a race.

Communicating with drivers is essential when on track, for both safety and competition reasons.

During the first half of 2026, the AASA will work towards rebuilding its officials and volunteers’ network, introducing new protocols and training to give flag marshals and other AASA officials added authority. This will help keep drivers safe and improve the racing experience for fans and competitors.

This is all in the lead up to the mid-year launch of a new AASA officials’ program, which will include new training, an official rating and title system.

Going forward drivers will also be required to communicate better with race control.

For example, if a driver has had an incident and is okay, they now must either place their steering wheel on the nose of an open wheel car or drop the window net and/or open the door of a sedan to indicate that they are okay.

Some significant changes for 2026 including reverting to flags to start a race with the new AASA rolling start system. A dedicated spotters’ areas for selected categories, re-invigorated use of pre-grid, new pace car protocols, a dedicated official for competitors to communicate directly with race control located at pre-grid, and a raft of other changes.

These will all come into effect for the first time this weekend, at Round 1 of the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series at the Shell V-Power Motorsport Park from March 13-15.

The opening round will feature the TA2 Muscle Car Series, Yokohama Tyres AASA Australian Formula Ford Championship, TFH Hire Legend Cars Australia, Formula RX8, Hankook Australian Drivers’ Championship and Australian IRC Racing Series.

To enter click here.

Entry for fans is free across all three days.

Marcos Ambrose – AASA Competition and Commercial Director

“One of our initiatives at AASA in 2026 is to re-engage the skills of officials into the running of race weekends to improve communications to the driver and also to race control.” Ambrose said. 

“We view communication as one of the most critical factors of running a successful and safe race event.

“Control tower communication will be made using our new clear comms radio system to our flag marshals, starter, grid officials and pace car. We will communicate with our drivers by using all means possible.

“There is going to be a refocus on the use of flag marshals, to give our flag marshals more support during AASA race events. We value our officials and want to give them more skills, resources and responsibility.

“We're also asking drivers to do more to let us know you're okay in the event of an accident. The driver will also have new responsibilities to help the flow of the event and provide clear feedback to race control by their actions on track.

“We're going to have a dedicated spotter’s area for some categories too, so we can talk to driver quickly via their spotter or car controller.

“We’ll be taking at least two AASA safety and recovery vehicles with a dedicated safety and recovery team to all our national level events, and that's a big thing for us.

“So, we're beefing up all things safety and recovery too.

“It's a real focus for us to improve our product.”