The unforgiving street circuit will help determine whether we have a title fight that goes down to the wire, or the early crowning of a new champion.

Will Brown could conceivably wrap up the title this weekend given he holds a 204-point lead. If he can eke that out to more than 300 by the end of the weekend, the tile will be his.

That puts the pressure on his two closest rivals Broc Feeney and Chaz Mostert, who will be looking to make in-roads on Brown and keep the fight alive.

Feeney has publicly acknowledged that he needs to be within 150 points heading to Adelaide if he fancies himself as a proper chance of nabbing the title off his teammate.

The form is somewhat difficult to read given the unique nature of the circuit, and the fact that last year was clouded by the on-the-fly parity changes.

The Ford Mustang was undoubtedly the car to beat on the Gold Coast streets in 2023 with Cam Waters and David Reynolds sharing the wins.

The parity picture has shifted since then, though, which makes it hard to predict the pecking order for this weekend.

One expected change for the weekend is the kerb strike rules, with plans to separate hops and cuts.

Hopping a kerb, ie using too much kerb while making a genuine effort to navigate the chicane, will continue to count towards a race-long allowance.

Cutting a chicane entirely, as often seen at Turn 1 on Lap 1, will incur an instant time penalty under the proposed rules.

That would mean the defence Reynolds used on the last lap of Sunday’s race last year to keep Brodie Kostecki at bay would be outlawed and Kostecki would have won that race.

The Gold Coast 500 will be determined over two 250-kilometre races, with the grids set by qualifying and Top 10 Shootouts on both Saturday and Sunday.

2024 Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 schedule

All times AEST

Friday October 25

8:50-9:10 V8 SuperUtes – Practice
9:20-9:40 Aussie Racing Cars – Practice
9:50-10:10 TGRA GR Cup – Practice 1
10:20-10:45 Carrera Cup – Practice 1
10:55-11:15 V8 SuperUtes – Qualifying
11:55-12:15 TGRA GR Cup – Practice 2
12:30-13:10 Supercars – Practice 1
13:55-14:20 Carrera Cup – Carrera Cup – Practice 2
14:30-14:50 V8 SuperUtes – Race 1
15:35-16:15 Supercars – Practice 2

Saturday October 26

8:35-9:00 Aussie Racing Cars – Race 2
9:10-9:25 TGRA GR Cup – Qualifying
9:40-10:10 Carrera Cup – Qualifying
10:20-10:40 V8 SuperUtes – Race 2
11:00-11:15 Supercars – Qualifying (Race 1)
11:30-11:50 Aussie Racing Cars – Race 3
12:00-12:20 TGRA GR Cup – Race 1
12:35-13:05 Supercars – Top 10 Shootout (Race 1)
13:20-13:45 V8 SuperUtes – Race 3
13:55-14:20 Carrera Cup – Race 1
15:15-17:18 Supercars – Race 1

Sunday October 27

8:05-8:30 TGRA GR Cup – Race 2
8:40-9:25 Carrera Cup – Race 2
9:35-9:55 Aussie Racing Cars – Race 4
10:10-10:25 Supercars – Qualifying (Race 2)
11:00-11:20 V8 SuperUtes – Race 4
11:35-12:05 Supercars – Top 10 Shootout (Race 2)
12:25-12:40 TGRA GR Cup – Race 3
12:55-13:20 Carrera Cup – Race 3
14:15-16:18 Supercars – Race 2