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The first night race of the Gen3 Supercars era, at Sydney Motorsport Park, will feature a very popular sight which has been missing for over a quarter of a century.
That is, flames from car exhausts lighting up the night sky.
The 2018 Sydney SuperNight marked the first Supercars event to be held under lights in more than seven years, following the 2011 season-opener at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit.
However, the early-season stops at Yas Marina and the Bahrain International Circuit were held during the years of E85 fuel, which was introduced to the championship in 2009.
One therefore has to go all the way back to the 1997 season-opener at Calder Park for the most recent night-time event for Supercars which could be relied on to throw flames out of their exhausts.
It was a point made by Brad Jones Racing’s Andre Heimgartner on this week’s Speedcafe Newscast.
“There’s always different stuff; a different format,” said the New Zealander.
“It’s exciting for the viewer; you know, we don’t always have sprint races, or we don’t always have the 250km races.
“But the night race, for a start, is pretty awesome. It’s cool to see the cars under lights, and this year especially, because we’re actually throwing flames out the side which is awesome.
“So, hopefully in that sort of twilight/night that we have there, you’ll be able to see some cool shots and the cars will be racing hard and good strategies and stuff like that.
“That will make it interesting.”
This weekend at SMP is the only time this season that teams will tackle a refuelling race and a non-refuelling race, taking on at least 80 litres of the new-for-2023 E75 blend in Saturday night’s 200km contest before backing up for a 140km encounter on Sunday afternoon.
BJR often deviates from the norm with respect to strategy and ‘Eastern Creek’ is a happy hunting ground for its #8 entry, with Nick Percat winning a race at each event held there in 2020.
It bodes well for the present-day #8 R&J Batteries Camaro driver, who is currently sixth in the championship with at least one podium in each of the last three events of the season.
Asked if he is ready for a win, Percat replied, “I think so. Yeah, we’ve come close so many times.
“I’ve had five podiums this year and another four last year [his first back at BJR], and come close many times.
“Sydney Motorsport Park for myself has been pretty strong – I’ve come second there before and been on pole – so, definitely looking forward to getting there.
“It’s the track we tested at, at the start of the year, so going back now we’ve developed the cars, it’ll be interesting to see the big differences.”
Support categories are on-track tomorrow, with the Repco Supercars Championship field hitting the track for Practice 1 on Saturday at 12:15 local time/AEST.
Race 18 of the season will start that night at 19:35 local time/AEST and run for 51 laps or one lap after 21:13.
