What do the V8 Supercar stewards actually do?
The most important thing in their charge is to have supreme authority for enforcement of the International Sporting Code, and for the application of any supplementary regulations and any other rules that may be apparent.As far as Supercars are concerned it's pretty good because we have a specific set of rules ... and these are derived from the International Sporting Code in conjunction with CAMS rules. But no other category has such a specific rulebook that covers such a range of circumstances and the rules.

What is your role as chief steward?
I am the chairman of the panel of three stewards and I guess that's fairly fundamental. I simply chair any of the enquiries or protests or whatever we may be involved in at any particular stage.

How do you land a job like that?
The appointment is from the board of CAMS, which each year nominates the chief stewards for various categories, not just Supercars.

Tim Schenken (above) has a role in the decision process- as does Colin Bond - but in the end the penalties are left to Wigston.

Where do Race Director Tim Schenken and Driving Standards Observer Colin Bond fit in to it?
They are part of the whole process as far as some of the reference situations are concerned. Probably Tim's main process is to announce any decision that we may have made. But he may have had input into a decision. He may have seen something and referred it to us. Colin's role is fairly specific as to what he is supposed to do, but I guess it becomes a situation of both those persons being part of the process on a review, but not part of the process in the decision mode. Any decisions are made by the three stewards in their own right. Some particular circumstances Tim may adjudicate in his own right, which he can, but when it comes to a review situation it is referred to us.You'd have to be a masochist to want to do this, wouldn't you, or do you enjoy being hated? I just don't enjoy being on Christmas Card lists (laughs). It's a very challenging job in its own right and the delicacy of it is you have to calmly rationalise a lot of situations.

Explain what process you follow to come to your decisions.
A fairly thorough process, depending on what the circumstances are and what we are actually looking at, whether it is an incident or a referral of an incident another official has seen. We sit down and look at all the parameters of a particular occurrence and examine those, investigate them and weigh up at the end of the day and make a decision on the evidence that is presented to us.

HRT's chance at Bathurst glory ended when they were told to come in and repair a flapping door.

Let's look at one specific decision this year - Skaife's door at Bathurst. Why wasn't he called in straight away?
One of the important points in any case is you don't want to pull the car into the pits unnecessarily, unless it is absolutely critical to do so. A lot of background research does go into this fact, interviewing various people and getting references from other technical officials of the meeting. In this case there was a lot of time that could be used and it was important at the end of the day to make the right decision. We are not inclined to be rushed into a snap decision and it is far better to make the correct decision rather than one that is not correct. So, yes there was certainly was time involved in it but at the end of the day it was important to make the correct decision.

This cost Marcos Ambrose $500

It's now well known that several Ford teams pointed out the flapping door to you; how does lobbying like that affect you?
I think lobbying will be there in any situation and let's face it, most teams will use any chance they can to support their particular cause. I think it's only natural to do that, but that's taken as it's presented and the facts are sorted out from anything else that might be thrown towards us.

A lot of people aren't aware that you were the 'Devil Racer' of the 1970s, pre-dating Bowe and Ambrose, racing a Group C Torana. You had some pretty good results, didn't you?
Fearless Fred was my nickname ... It came about from my early days in Tasmania, running FJs, that was my starting point in the early 1960s. From there I went to Lotus Cortinas and then Lotus Escorts; those were tremendous little motor cars to drive and certainly I got a lot of pleasure out of it. I then came along with Roadways and introduced them into motorsport. They were looking for someone to drive their cars and I held my hand up that high, that quickly, no-one was competing. We had a very enjoyable period for about five years and we had some pretty good results. We made the rostrum at Symmons Plains (Tas) and at the Sandown 500 as well. We had some reasonable results at Bathurst - each of the seven years we ran there I think we ended up in the top 10. Our best finish was fourth.

Wigston has the cane out and is prepared to rap drivers across the knuckles if they get out of line.

So did 'Fearless Fred' ever get hauled before the stewards?

I was only called before the stewards once in my life and that was at the Sandown 500. I passed Murray Carter going down the back towards Dandy Road corner under yellows.Murray was just toddling back to the pits minding his own business, something having gone wrong. I was dragged up and said my piece. I think I was fined $200 and that sure hurt my pocket at the stage of the game. I wasn't a happy camper, but at the end of the day I was in breach of the rules. But I do know how everybody else feels, I have been there and done that myself.