Supercars has confirmed the schedules for the pre-enduro tests which will take place early next week, ahead of the Penrite Oil Sandown 500.
Both Winton and Queensland Raceway will be hives of activity on Monday, September 4 and Tuesday, September 5, with teams running a variety of programmes.
There will be two notable internationals in action on that Monday, with Kevin Estre to get his very first laps in a Supercar, and Simona De Silvestro her first in a Gen3 car.
Estre is pairing up with Matt Payne in Grove Racing’s #19 Penrite Mustang and his running that day at Winton will technically be an Evaluation Day.
However, the Porsche factory sportscar/GT driver has not competed in a Supercars enduro event in the past three years, or indeed at all, and hence is eligible per a rule change in recent years which essentially gives Bathurst 1000 rookies an extra test day.
De Silvestro has also not made an appearance in Supercars since the 2019 season finale in Newcastle although, in her case, the Shell V-Power Racing Team Mustang which she will share with Kai Allen is eligible for multiple test days by virtue of being a wildcard entry for the Repco Bathurst 1000.
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Grove Racing will be joined on the Monday by Erebus Motorsport, which is holding the Evaluation Day for Cooper Murray and Jay Hanson that was to have taken place in May before they abandoned the day due to wet weather.
At Queensland Raceway, DJR’s #98 Mustang of De Silvestro/Allen is set to share the track with Triple Eight Race Engineering’s own wildcard entry, with Craig Lowndes/Zane Goddard to resume their testing programme in the #888 Supercheap Auto Camaro.
UPDATE: De Silvestro surgery delays DJR wildcard testing
Then on Tuesday, all of the southern-based teams will be in action at Winton, namely Erebus, Brad Jones Racing, Tickford Racing, Walkinshaw Andretti United, Team 18, Grove, and the Blanchard Racing Team, the latter of which expands to two cars for both of the enduros with a wildcard Mustang to be driven by Aaron Love/Jake Kostecki.
Likewise at Queensland Raceway, all Sunshine State-based squads will clock up the pre-Sandown mileage, namely Triple Eight, DJR, Matt Stone Racing, and PremiAir Racing.
De Silvestro/Allen, who are undertaking just the Bathurst 1000, are then set to get another test day, as advised by DJR Team Principal Ben Croke upon the announcement of their wildcard in July.
“We’ve put together a pretty tight programme, there’s a lot going on,” he told selected media including Speedcafe.
“But, pretty much the whole month of September, and then into early October, Simona [who is based in her native Switzerland] will be joining us here in Australia and Kai will be spending some time up here as well.
“So, the first run for the guys will be on the fourth of September at QR, and then with all three cars on the fifth of September, and then we’ll squeeze another one in – which will be a lot of process and procedure and endurance race stuff like that – just before Bathurst.
“It’s all a very tight timeframe but it’s all around making sure that their time in the Gen3 car is maximised and in really good timeframe leading into Bathurst, so that they’re familiar with all the surroundings of the team, the car, everything else that goes into making sure that Bathurst is done well.
Dunlop Super2 Series teams are also set to be in action next week, including WAU, Eggleston Motorsport, BJR, Matt Chahda Motorsport, Kelly Racing, McLeod Racing (all at Winton), and Paul Morris’ Nemo Racing (Queensland Raceway) all testing.
The Sandown 500 takes place on September 15-17 and the Bathurst 1000 on October 5-8.
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