Refuelling during Sprint Cup races this season will take place using 25-litre fuel churns rather than the usual fuel towers, which are labour-intensive to set up and operate.
Teams were allowed to practice the new style of refuelling stops for a limited period during the early afternoon and not all went smoothly.
The bulky churns appeared difficult to manoeuvre due to their weight when full of fuel.
Supercars motorsport boss Tim Edwards told Speedcafe he expects teams will take time to adjust.
“There were clearly some teams that had done a bit more practice than others, but even the ones that looked a little rusty at the start were getting more comfortable with it by the end,” he said.
“Anything that’s new is always going to take time. The team only got them a week or so ago, so they haven’t had much time to rehearse with them.
Click here now.
“The purpose of the session was to allow them to get more comfortable.”
Brad Jones detailed the new refuelling challenge in the team’s latest video, below, noting the differences between the Supercars churns and that used in NASCAR.
“It sits really high, it’s not like a NASCAR churn that’s low, so it’s really difficult to handle, it’s a lot of weight swinging around above your head,” he said.
“We’ll see how things go but unless the driver stops exactly in the right spot it’s going to be quite time consuming. It takes seconds [for the refueller] to move around, rather than tenths of seconds.”
Edwards estimates cars will need to take on between 22 and 24 litres of fuel during the 200km races on Saturday and Sunday.
That can be spread across two pit stops, meaning tyre changes should, in theory, take longer than the refuelling.
“In theory it should, but you could see a big difference in pitlane with the tyre change time as well,” added Edwards.
“There were a couple of teams getting the tyres done before the churn and some taking longer with the tyres, so both elements are putting pressure on the pit crews.”
Discussion about this post