MOTORSPORT: Supercars mixes it up

Has Supercars discovered its secret sauce?

Amid the tumult and turmoil of the coronavirus and the challenge of just keeping the championship going, the Supercars racing at Sydney Motorsport Park over the weekend was at times ‘off the couch’ good.

Purists will scoff and argue it’s artificial because of the way the tyre rules are constructed. But purity is not intended to be part of Aussie touring car racing’s DNA – it’s meant to be all about entertaining, tough, close and even racing.

Over the weekend each car was given two sets of soft Dunlops and three sets of hards for as many as five qualifying sessions and three 32-lap sprints on the tyre-abrasive circuit.

This was a new twist on top of the three-race format that debuted when the championship returned to action – also at SMP – in late June. At that event each car had five sets of softs available.

Mix the tyre sets up and last weekend’s racing took another step-up in unpredictability.

All three races featured bonafide races for the lead and lead changes, but there were simply not enough of the faster soft tyres to be a front-runner every time out.

As a result the dominant teams – DJR Team Penske and Triple Eight Racing – managed just one win between them when championship leader Scott McLaughlin saluted under lights on Saturday night.

On Sunday it was Nick Percat winning for the second event in a row for Brad Jones Racing in his Holden Commodore ZB, then Jack Le Brocq claiming his first podium and his first win for Tickford Racing.

This final race was where the tyre rule most obviously emphasised its impact. Battling nose-to-tail with Le Brocq for the win in the closing stages were Kelly Racing’s Andre Heimgartner (Mustang), Todd Hazelwood (BJR) and David Reynolds (Erebus Commodore).

Four different drivers from four different teams and only Reynolds had previously scored a win or podium.

These were the drivers who had most patiently hoarded their softs and had the best tyre condition for the final run. Heimgartner had even started the race from his maiden Supercars pole.

Another great example of the lottery the tyre rules produced was the fight for third in race two, which ended with McLaughlin pipping James Courtney for the final podium spot in the drag to the line.

And here’s one more piece of evidence the tyre rule has upended the state of the Supercars world. Across two consecutive SMP meetings and six races the factory Holden team Triple Eight and its drivers Shave van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup have not won a race.

In large part that’s because the focus for the team’s aiming for the championship had to be gathering maximum points. Under this new tyre rule that meant trying to be as consistently near the front as possible.

To do that meant trying to stretch tyre performance as far as possible, rather than using all your best rubber in one race and going for glory.

Opt for the latter and the decision then becomes when do you pull the trigger? Potential television ratings drove the decision for some apparently.

Two-time and defending Supercars champion McLaughlin did the best overall job of anyone, going 1-3-14 to collect 228 points out of a possible 300. Next best was Percat who went 9-1-11 (204) and Mclaughlin’s Ford team-mate Fabian Coulthard, who finishes 7-2-13 (200).

Whincup was only ninth on the list with 170 points eked out of 5-17-8 finishes. He still managed to stay second in the driver’s championship chase, albeit now 107 points behind McLaughlin.

Despite his success, McLaughlin had some reservations about the format, expressing a preference for all-softs and a desire for all cars to have the same tyre condition in qualifying.

“It’s fantastic for the category, (for) sponsors, and other people winning. It’s awesome, don’t get me wrong, (but) it’s kind of weird just rolling around in 14th and still winning the round,” he said.

The bulk of the Supercars circus is now headed into Queensland for the next couple of weeks, before crossing the into the Northern Territory for a double-header on consecutive weekends at Darwin’s Hidden Valley starting August 8-9.

2020 Supercars series points:
1. Scott McLaughlin – 802
2. Jamie Whincup – 695
3. Chaz Mostert – 610