Refuelling, radical tyre allocation for fourth SMP Supercars event

Supercars’ fourth event at Sydney Motorsport Park will feature refuelling races and a radical, mixed-compound tyre allocation.

While the three preceding Repco Supercars Championship events at ‘Eastern Creek’ will comprise a trio of 125km sprints, the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight will be made up of two, 250km races.

Furthermore, drivers will be obliged to use both the hard and super soft tyre compounds in each of those races, officially the 29th and 30th of the season, marking a first for the category.

While mixed-compound races are not new, this season is the first in which the slick range has spanned three compounds, and only the super soft was in play when it debuted in competition at Hidden Valley in June.

It was also to have been used at Winton but that circuit was dropped from the final version of the calendar, while hard tyres were earmarked for Pukekohe and then Phillip Island before it too had to be cut.

Running the super softs at Sydney Motorsport Park will be particularly intriguing in itself, given how tough the circuit is on tyres, let alone having to switch between those and the hards.

The refuelling aspect is helpful preparation for the Repco Bathurst 1000 which will be held a fortnight later, and that is not the only notable element ahead of the season’s sole enduro.

The fourth SMP event, which takes place on November 19-21, will also feature a 40-minute Additional Driver session on the Friday afternoon, giving co-drivers mileage.

That will lead into a night-time practice session of 30 minutes’ duration, then another half-hour session on the Saturday.

Both the Saturday and Sunday will feature one qualifying session, a Top 10 Shootout, and a 250km race.

The super soft compound tyres, of which each car will be allocated two sets, may only be used in those races.

The hard tyres, an allocation of seven sets for each entry, are thus the only ones in play for qualifying and the shootouts.

Race 29 will be run under lights, and Race 30 in the afternoon.

All four SMP events will take place on the standard, 3.91km ‘Gardner’ circuit layout.

CLICK HERE for more details on the other SMP events

Sydney Motorsport Park: Formats, tyres