Pairing a V8 Supercar team's two leading dri🌜vers for t🏅he annual trips to Bathurst and Philip Island will become a thing of the past from next season, after series organisers outlawed the tactic with immediate effect.

The revised ruling will forbid any driver running the entire season for one entrant - with each car operating under a Racing Entitlement Contract in similar franchise fashion🥀 to NASCAR - from appearing in a second car during the same calendar year.

Although series organiser V8 Supercars Australia, which contains represe꧒ntation from the teams, reserves the right to waive the ruling in extreme cases, it hopes that the move will not only provide greater trackꦺ time for the championship's full-time drivers, as teams favour them over their part-time or less experienced colleagues, but will also give the fans a chance to see more of the stars go head-to-head in the big events.

"If there are eight cars with 16 top drivers, you've got eight top drivers sitting in the garage at the✱ end of the race - and I think anyone would agree it would be good to have 16 good drivers racing at the end rather than eight," FPR team principal admitted.

"From the feedback we have had from the press and the public, they believe it is best for the sport. It is good for the sport, [although] not necessarily good for all the teams. Of course, I would like to put 'Richo' and 'Frosty' together, but you can't always think about your own team. Sometimes y🍌ou have to put the sport first, and that's obviously what the majority of the teams thღought.

"We knew it would be a contentious decision, which is why all of the teams were asked, and the majority said it would be good that drivers stay i𓄧n their own car𝔉s."

The move will, however, increase the demand for talented team-mates for the star names, and could open the door for more Fujitsu Series dr🧔ivers to appear on the big stage - even if regular pilots feel it a little unfair that a stand-in could claim victory at Mount Panorama.

Reigning Bathurst champion Garth Tander - who won bot🐬h endurance events in 2009 with HRT team-mate Will Davison - called the decision 'ridiculous', while GRM's Michael Caruso was among those who questioned the wisdom of splitting the big names, particularly if teams had worked to pair pilots of similar physical stature.

"I think it's an absolutely stupid rule," Tander told Australia's AAP, "I can't see the reasoning be🅘hind it. All I can see it doing is increasing the costs for everyone involved because what's going to have to happen is all the good, experienced co-drivers, that aren't full-time, will be able to demand a premium price because their services all of a sudden become far more valuable.

"Those that ar🦋en't able to secure those guys will have to run development programmes, extra ride days, just do everyt⛄hing they can to give those drivers extra miles and all that does is increase costs.

"I think, 𒉰for a category that's been trumpeting how it's going to reduce costs, this is the absolute complete opposite of that. I do not see any gain or benefit in it."

"One of 🐓the traditional aspects of Bathurst is it's a two-driver race - and it denies Will and I the opportunity to defend our title. We're obviously very disappointed about that, but it also takes away one of the great Bathurst traditions of putting two good guys in a good car and having a red-hot go at trying to win the biggest race in the country.

"Not only are they changing the scenery of the way Bathurst operates, but it's playing with tradition - and Bathurst is all about tradition. We've lost enough♑ traditions in our sport that we're now trying to tread on sacred ground - as I said, I just think it's ridiculous."