A significant change to Supercars’ pit stop regulations will be implemented at next month’s Penrite Oil Sandown 500, the first enduro of the Gen3 era.
The ‘spike man’, who activates the car’s onboard air jacks, will now operate from the fast line side of the car rather than the standard, garage side, per the event supplementary regulations:
5.12 USE OF EQUIPMENT / TOOLS
5.12.1 At this Event, note the following amendments to Rule D11.7.8:
D11.7.8 Air jacks must always be manually operated from the Pit Garage Fastlane side of the Car during any Pit Stop.
Notably, driver changes and refuelling both occur at the right-hand side of the car at Sandown International Motor Raceway, which so happens to be an anti-clockwise circuit with pit lane on the outside.
One explanation for the change in rules for the weekend may be to reduce some of the crowding around the driver’s side of the vehicle.
While that crowding has always existed in a 500km enduro at Sandown, although not at the Bathurst 1000 given pit lane is on the inside of the Mount Panorama Motor Racing Circuit, the layout of Gen3 componentry creates new challenges.
The air spike was once located in the B-pillar, when a Supercars chassis was designed for sedan body shapes, whereas it is now situated just forward of the door.
While the spike man has easy enough access when the driver’s door need not be opened, that is not the case when a driver change is taking place and crew members are changing wheels.
The change of procedure should be fairly straightforward to implement, with the air line for the spike now needing to be run across the boom, as it already is for the rattle guns on the fast lane side of the car.
Refuelling towers, and hence full pit stop practice, are permitted to be used during Friday afternoon’s third practice session of the event.
In a change to technical rules for the Sandown 500, all cars will move to a taller drop gear ratio, namely the 1.000.
That ratio, which features 23/23 teeth, was listed as the taller back-up ratio in this year’s Operations Manual, with the 1.042 (24/25) being the standard ratio for Sandown.
It is not the first time Supercars has opted for the ‘back-up #1’ ratio, with that change also being implemented for Symmons Plains in May.
The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship continues next week with the OTR SuperSprint at The Bend Motorsport Park, before the return of the Sandown 500 on September 15-17.
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