New Supercars driver change techniques will have to be learned for the Gen3 era, according to Supercheap Auto wildcard pilot Craig Lowndes.
Zane Goddard drove the #888 Triple Eight Race Engineering entry at Hidden Valley before pairing up with Lowndes for this year’s Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000.
They have now enjoyed two test days in the Supercheap Auto Chevrolet Camaro at Queensland Raceway, with a third to come in the weeks out from the return of enduro racing at Sandown.
Aside from adapting their craft behind the wheel for the new breed of Supercar, they also face the task of trying to optimise how they will enter and exit a cabin which has a lower roofline.
“The next phase really for us is – I think like every team – is to do some driver changes and to work out how to get in and out of these cars,” Lowndes told Speedcafe during their most recent test day.
“They’re more difficult, I’ve got to say, than what they were in the previous model, because the doors are wider – which is fine – but they’re narrower [in height].
“Even for my height, it’s quite difficult to get in and out of the car. For Shane van Gisbergen or Brodie Kostecki – the bigger, taller guys – they’re going to find it very difficult.
“These cars are harder to get in and out of the car, so the sort of 13, 14 seconds [driver change times] that we saw last year are not going to be.”
He added, “I had a method with last year’s car. I used to put my left leg in, put my head in, and sort of fall into the seat.
“This car, you can’t do that, because of how narrow the roofline is as well as the door.
“You’ve almost got to get your left leg in, your bum in, and slide into the seat, so it’s a technique that we’re going to have to work on and to also help each other.
“Last year, with Declan Fraser, I helped him get in and out of the car; I’m going have to do the same with Zane.
“He’s the same height as me – he’s a little bit thinner in girth – but, even for him, it’s a bit of a struggle.”
While driver changes will take longer, there will also be much more time in which to complete them, all other things being equal.
In fact, refuelling a tank from empty to full might now take upwards of 50 seconds, rather than about 30 for the previous-generation Supercars.
Gen3 fuel cell capacity is 133 litres rather than 111, a 20 percent increase, and the flow rate from the rigging equipment is somewhere in the region of 2.5 litres per second, well down from about 3.75 with the old Siamese coupling and hoses.
“What’s going to help us is, the fuel flow is going to take longer as well,” noted Lowndes.
“So, everything will go in proportion, but it’s just a very different car to get in and out.”
Teams may either use one of their eight permitted pit stop crew members as a driver change assistant, provided they perform no other jobs, or task the outgoing driver with helping he/she who is incoming.
The Sandown 500 takes place on September 15-17 and the Bathurst 1000 on October 5-8.
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