Gen3 tipped to come into its own at The Bend

A key benefit of the Gen3 Supercars is set to be on show at The Bend, according to Anton De Pasquale.

This weekend’s OTR SuperSprint will be the first event of the Gen3 era at Tailem Bend, a rather large and open circuit.

With downforce having been slashed by more than 60 percent relative to the Gen2 Supercars, De Pasquale is tipping more passing due to reduced aerodynamic influence.

“We’ve definitely been able to race a lot closer than previous years, especially around places like this,” noted the Shell V-Power Racing Team driver, who won Race 17 of the season at the NTI Townsville 500.

“We were going so fast that it was quite hard to follow, so this year will tell us that won’t be as bad.

“So, generally, the faster cars make their way to the front in the race – depends where they qualify – so, definitely, if you have speed on the cars in front of you, I think you’ll be able to do something with it.

“We’ll see over the weekend, but definitely at SMP and throughout this year, we’ve been able to see that.

“So, that’s exciting for the championship; I think it makes the racing really cool.

“At tracks like this, where we are on the edge and going so fast, if we throw a few more elements in there with some passing, and things like that – two-wide sort of stuff – it’s going to be really exciting for everyone.”

Of particular interest with respect to how drivers handle the reduction in downforce will be the Turn 5 sweeper and the ‘threesome’ of downhill right-handers (Turns 8 to 10) in Sector 2.

Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Nick Percat alluded to that complex as he predicted a “sketchy” challenge for drivers.

That middle sector there is pure aero and obviously these cars have roughly half the amount that we normally did,” noted the #2 Mobil 1 NTI Mustang pilot.

“I anticipate they’ll be very quick down the front straight and then a little bit sketchy through the middle sector, which will be good.

“It keeps us on our toes. There’ll be corners where we used to be flat through them; we’ll now be having a good lift and a think about it.

“I think it’ll make more mistakes and, hopefully, it will create a bit more racing and passing and stuff like that.

“So far, the product has proven that we can follow better and we can race a bit harder, which is probably pretty key for Tailem Bend, being a very aero track.”

While downforce is down across the board relative to 2022, Percat’s Team Principal, Bruce Stewart, has raised a concern about a drag disparity for the Ford Mustangs, for The Bend and also Bathurst.

Practice 1 at The Bend starts today at 09:45 local time/10:15 AEST.