The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting three to 20mm of rain on Friday, including a 90 percent chance of any rain at all, with a possible storm.
Saturday and Sunday, however, are likely to be dry (30 and five percent chance of rain, respectively), which will be a boon for spectators but presents a potential headache for competitors.
All two hours of practice, spread evenly across two sessions, will be held on Friday, whereas the Saturday and Sunday programme is, in each case, 20 minutes of qualifying, a Top 10 Shootout, and a 40-lap/250km race.
The challenge was alluded to by Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert, who drove one of his own team’s McLaren GT4s in changeable conditions in the Bathurst 12 Hour in recent days.
Ahead of his first competitive outing in the #25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang Supercar, he said, “I’ve missed this, it’s been a good summer break, but I have been itching to get back behind the wheel since the new year to be honest.
“Spending the last week here at Bathurst for the 12 hour has been great, I’ve been able to familiarise myself with the track again before we head out later this week, it’s never a bad place to get some laps in.
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“It’s great to have Woody [rookie team-mate Ryan Wood] joining us, it’s been awesome with him so far, we get along really well off track so I am excited to work closely with him this year.
“It looks like it the weather could be a bit of a wildcard early in the weekend which could throw a spanner in the works.
“We didn’t get many wet runs in last year so this will make the first round interesting.”
Both the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro have been rehomologated in the off-season following wind tunnel testing in the United States, twice in the case of the former.
In addition to the challenge of trying to learn their new bodywork at a fast, aero-sensitive circuit in variable weather, the Supercars field has still barely raced on the new-for-2023 Dunlop wet tyre, given the rarity of rain in the past 12 months.
There was some running during some barely wet races at Albert Park in late-March/early-April and in a practice session at Adelaide but, otherwise, slicks prevailed.
The Supercars Championship field will be on-track for the first time this weekend on Friday at 10:00 local time/AEDT for an ‘SC Procedure Check Session’, in readiness for the official debut of the Full Course Yellow system.
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