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The 2024 Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint represented the first deployment of the two-race SuperSprint format after years of three-race events.
Total racing distance was down more than 10 percent relative to the three-race format of old, although it should be noted that the 400km of racing at Taupo in 2024 replaced 300km of racing at The Bend in 2023, and the Sunday race at this year’s Sydney event is longer than at last year’s.
However, the existence of Saturday and Sunday morning practice at Wanneroo, even if it represented a redistribution of the originally scheduled 90-minute Friday session (with an extra 10 minutes of track time thrown in), perhaps served to only highlight the relative dearth of actual racing over that weekend.
Will Brown certainly found it “weird,” Cam Waters and Chaz Mostert both said they would like to see longer races, while Roland Dane also called for more racing and less practice.
Mostert, himself a team owner nowadays in Monochrome GT4 Australia, acknowledged that longer races means more cost, but is there a better way?
Every event on this year’s calendar (except for that of Albert Park, an anomaly given it is a Formula 1 grand prix) features at least 80 minutes of practice, whereas a majority last year saw only 60.
Perhaps even that was too much.
Competitors may argue that they need practice time in order to optimise set-ups.
Viewers, however, might say that they do not want to see optimal.
Dane asserted that punters “want racing and they want jeopardy in the results.”
Say there was no practice at all; qualifying and hence racing would be less predictable, although the cream would rise to the top.
We might very well see the same champion at season’s end, but there would be more variability in results from race to race.
Eliminating practice entirely might be excessive, and some track time before the competitive sessions would be prudent as a systems check for cars at the very least.
One might also deem it necessary for longer distance races, and particularly at the enduros (nor is it necessarily feasible/reasonable to make the Sandown 500 or Bathurst 1000 any longer if some track time is saved from practice).
Unless Supercars commits to genuine two-day events, there would also need to be a solution to Fridays, although perhaps the shift of qualifying at Hidden Valley shows the way.
In any case, NASCAR has shown that it can get away with holding race meetings with little to no practice.
It removes a step in one of the many positive feedback loops which exist in motorsport, and work against the goal of exciting racing.
Would you like to see less practice in Supercars if it meant more racing? Cast your vote below in this week’s Pirtek Poll.
