Second-year drivers are now able to use rookie test days due to a rule change for this year’s Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.
Such drivers now have six test days at their disposal instead of the standard three due to a tweak to the rule regarding VCS (Supercars Championship) test days.
The ‘Additional allowance’ which has been inserted into Rule D1.3.2 states “Following the permission of the HoM, Primary Drivers in their second full Season will be permitted the additional Test Days under Rule D1.3.4 Rookie Test Days.”
According to Supercars’ Head of Motorsport, Adrian Burgess, the rule change is intended to encourage teams to sign and then keep young drivers.
“The Commission has agreed to an initiative to help encourage teams to invest (in) young drivers/new talent, that come into the category, but also help them stay in for their second year, that the extra testing allowances that are given to rookies should also be given in their second full season,” Burgess told Speedcafe.com.
“It’s an incentive to teams to invest in young drivers.”
The change coincides with the inception of the Supercars-endorsed ‘SuperLite’ initiative, which has been taken up by Matt Stone Racing to field a car shared by Dunlop Super2 Series graduates Zane Goddard and Jake Kostecki.
Their MSR team-mate Garry Jacobson is among those to benefit from the retention of his rookie test allocation having debuted as a full-time driver with Kelly Racing last year.
At Brad Jones Racing, both Macauley Jones and Jack Smith will also have three more test days than they otherwise would have.
The former was a 2019 rookie while the latter cannot be registered as a rookie in 2020 having entered the Pirtek Enduro Cup events and more than two Sprint Events last year.
Jacobson, Jones, and Smith are all set to test today, the former at Queensland Raceway with his rookie team-mates and the latter two at Winton.
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