Emergency track change for Sydney 500 supports

Track action at the Dunlop Sydney 500 was delayed for Supercars officials to inspect Turn 8 after the first session.

The newly-paved asphalt survived Friday night’s Supercars action in cooler conditions, but Supercars and its support classes were greeted by much warmer weather on Saturday morning.

Supercars head of motorsport Tim Edwards, driving standards advisor Craig Baird, and deputy race director David Stuart inspected Turn 8 after the opening Tyrepower V8 SuperUtes race.

It was decided thereafter that the support classes would switch to the shorter Druitt configuration.

That was initially not meant to include Super2, however Supercars has since elected to hold at least qualifying for the second-tier category on the short circuit.

Speaking on the Fox Sports broadcast, Edwards confirmed a resin had been applied to the affected area.

“The track looked really good after last night’s race but there were a few small areas starting to break up, so we’ve put some Degadur down,” said Edwards.

“Those areas have held up really well, but now, because it’s such a long corner, effectively we’ve moved further around the corner and plucked some more bitumen out further around the corner.

“We’ve put more Degudar down on that area, so we’re waiting for that to set at the moment.

“In the meantime, just to buy ourselves a bit of time, we’ve moved some of the support categories to the shorter track.

“That should give us two hours of nobody running on it to allow that to set properly.”

As it stands, Supercars will remain on the Gardner layout.

Edwards said he was not concerned about the track breaking up further when Supercars is on track in cooler conditions.

“Last night, under lights, nice cool temperature, comparatively, so when we race tonight, same conditions, so that works in our favour,” Edwards added.

“Certainly, the UV at the moment and the ambient temperature is really high. You walk out on the track and your feet stick to it, it’s that sticky out there.”

The Super2 Series will act as something of a litmus test for Supercars to gauge Turn 8 before the championship gets on track for qualifying.

“We’ve just moved the Super2 category slightly later for their qualifying, so the first people to go on the full track again will be Super2, and that will be right before the main series qualifying,” Edwards explained.

“Between each session, the MA (Motorsport Australia) guys are heading out on track as well so they can keep inspecting it. At least we get someone to run on it right before [Supercars].

“Also, their race is later today as well. They’ll be back on the long track for that race as well. You really need to qualify on the track you’re going to race on.”

On Monday, water was found weeping through the track surface at Turn 8. That forced the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club into a last-minute resurface.

“There was water coming up there earlier in the week, so then they tore the circuit up, put some drainage in, and relaid some asphalt,” said James Courtney on Fox Sports’ commentary.

“On Thursday, we were all a bit concerned about whether it was going to hold up.

“It looked pretty good over those first couple of days, but this morning with the heat, the way it is, it’s started ripping up.”

Touring Car Masters was slated for a 12:40pm AEDT start, but its Trophy Race was cancelled.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia GR Cup is the only other category on the support card.

Track action is set to resume at 1:35pm AEDT with the GR Cup.

The temperature at Sydney Motorsport Park is expected to reach 35 degrees.

Repco Supercars Championship Dunlop Sydney 500, revised schedule