Sprints Only For Supercars
There will be no refuelling in Supercars until Bathurst.
The 2020 championship series will be reduced to a long series of sprints until The Great Race.
The three-race format used so successfully at Sydney Motorsport Park will be repeated in Darwin and Townsville, and perhaps also at Queensland Raceway, with the variety in tactics and results to be provided by different tyre allocations.
“I would assume a three-race meeting for the second event in Darwin is likely, but it’s unclear for Townsville,” a Supercars spokesman tells Race News.
“I think they (Supercars Commission) will re-visit after they see what the racing looks like at the first Darwin event. I don’t think the intention is to keep everything the way it’s been at Sydney.
“They’ve changed the quali tyre rules for this one (in Darwin). Only hards allowed for Saturday quali.
With the three-race deal also set for the first Darwin dash, the pattern is clear.
And the reasons are obvious.
Many of the travelling teams from Victoria have left their refuelling rigs at home, and all teams want to avoid the extra personnel required to make fuel stops.
“The race is good so right now, while we’ve got teams on the road, it’s too big a drain on our resources,” team boss Brad Jones tells Race News.
“You need three extra people. You can get away with two, but most teams don’t have enough people.”
“It’s not just the person or persons on the fuel hose, you also need someone on standby with a fire extinguisher.”
Brad Jones Racing has been one of the biggest winners from the new three-race sprint format and he believes the system is working well.
“There are going to be a lot of three-race meetings. But things will change around with tyres and qualifying formats.
“We’ve won a race and had three podiums. One of the things we have in our favour is that we’re quite clever on strategy.”
He says Nick Percat is finally showing his true speed and ability this year and is keen for a continuation of good results in Darwin.
“Percat is legitimately fast. He’s the real deal. He’s been in the top three overall at the last two meetings in Sydney.”
But Jones is not as confident about Darwin.
“Traditionally, it’s not a good circuit for us. So we’ll see.
“I feel like it’s going to be a good test for us.”
