As well as slashing practice, the category has axed all three private test days allocated to each team this season.

Instead, there will be two all-in category tests. They will take place at Sydney Motorsport Park on February 19 and Queensland Raceway on August 11.

The SMP test is the Wednesday of the season-opening round at the same circuit, while the latter is the Monday after the Queensland Raceway round that ends the Sprint Cup.

That makes the QR test a pre-endurance hit out for co-drivers and teams ahead of The Bend 500 and Bathurst 1000.

Supercars’ motorsport manager Tim Edwards says that no longer having squads trek to Winton and Ipswich specifically for testing was the aim of the game.

“The reality is, from a team perspective, prepping your cars to go to a test is as big a job as prepping to go to a race,” Edwards told Speedcafe.

“We’re increasing the workload on teams with more races, so we’re trying to think, how can we help them?

“To be honest it actually was driven from the teams to cut back. There were teams that said, ‘let’s just have the Sydney one and no more’.

“I actually went ‘I think we need one for the co-drivers’. I actually had to push back on the teams, they wanted to bring it back even more.

“So 100 percent support from all the teams for doing it.”

The timing of the QR test means Queensland teams will gain no direct benefit from the Ipswich venue returning to the schedule while Winton remains off the calendar.

Some provision for private rookie tests is, however, expected to remain.

Supercars will undertake some testing of its own at Bathurst this weekend, giving its 2025 soft tyre another outing during a dedicated session early on Friday morning.

A Triple Eight Camaro and Blanchard Racing Team Mustang will be used for the exercise.

“It’s only a half-hour session because we struggle to get track time here,” said Edwards.

“But they’ll go on one set and run it for the whole 30 minutes. It’s just another opportunity to get a bit more data on it.”