Key change to Supercars refuelling equipment

There has been a change to Supercars refuelling equipment at this weekend’s NTI Townsville 500, which is set to have a significant effect at the enduros.

A transparent section has been added to the vent hose which will allow crews to save potentially precious tenths of a second in pit lane when refuelling back to a full tank.

A see-through vent line is not completely new, of course, but a new fuel head and coupling for Gen3 meant new pit equipment.

The field used a spec of vent line hose which was opaque in Newcastle, the only other refuelling event so far, because of what is understood to have been an issue with the originally intended product for this year.

With a clear section inserted into the hose now, the fuel man will be able to see exactly when the tank is full by watching for the fuel to go back up the line.

This weekend’s pair of 250km races each include a compulsory 100-litre total fuel drop into a 133-litre cell across a minimum two pit stops, and hence filling the tank during the race will probably be unnecessary.

At the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000, on the other hand, it will come back into play.

“I don’t think it’ll make a difference coming into this event unless there’s a Safety Car on Lap 3 or something,” Brad Jones, owner of his eponymous team, told Speedcafe.

“But it’s not just for here – it’s for all our [refuelling] races – so when you get to Sandown and Bathurst, you want to know when it’s full.”

Tickford Racing Team Principal Tim Edwards told Speedcafe likewise, “That’s really more of a Bathurst thing where you want to just fill to splash.

“You’ve always got the timer going so you’ve got a rough idea of what’s going to go in, but there’s no better measure than the physical guy on the hose. As soon as he gets the splash there, then he knows that it’s full.

“It’s really a Bathurst thing, but it could come into play here if there’s a Safety Car at the wrong time.”

Townsville marks just the second refuelling event of the Gen3 era, and while that means much more confidence about fuel economy than when the season began in Newcastle, Jones does not expect teams to push the critical lap.

“I think you’ll wear out your tyres before you run out of petrol,” he predicted.

“I think that factor here and in Sydney will probably dictate the stops more – which is the way it should be, really – but people will still try and go further than ever on a set of tyres until they get to the stage two deg.”

Fuel economy is an interesting topic in the context of Gen3, given the Chevrolet Camaro is powered by a 5.7-litre pushrod engine and the Ford Mustang by a 5.4-litre quad cam unit.

Given the Townsville format and anticipated tyre degradation, any discrepancy is unlikely to make a difference this weekend, although it will be a factor come the enduros, for which CPS requirements are yet to be determined.

Jones, who fields four Camaros, said, “They’re hoping they’re going to be somewhere similar but it’s hard to know.

“Supercars have got a better idea about that than any of us, because they’re the ones that can know how much fuel each person is running and where they’re at.

“From my perspective, I don’t have a real clue on where the Fords are but it looks like it’s something similar.”

Edwards remarked regarding economy, “We’ve got a read [but] we don’t know how that compares to the Camaro. That’s an unknown for us because only Supercars know the answer to that.

“Really, until you get to Sandown, no one’s really going to have a read because you’ve got to do a full tank drop, and somebody’s got to do a full tank run-out to determine, can you do 26 laps, can you do 27 laps?

“It’s only when you do that full tank that you get a better idea of exactly where everyone’s at.”

Qualifying for Race 16 starts at 10:15 local time/AEST.