MOTORSPORT: Sydney shines light on Supercars

Night work in Sydney this weekend could point to a brighter future for Supercars racing.

An $80,000 experiment in spotlighting the Supercars action, using similar technology to the temporary light towers used for after-dark roadworks, is intended to draw a much-needed crowd to Sydney Motorsport Park (SMP) in the city’s west.

If it works, the model for floodlit night racing is likely to be transplanted to several other permanent racetracks, perhaps including Darwin, Perth and Winton in Victoria.

Delaying the racing until after dark could also have an impact on potential plans for a summer series of Supercars racing, since competition could be delayed until after the hottest times of the day.

“We want to see how it goes,” says Supercars spokesman, John Casey.

“It is an experiment but we’re pretty confident.”

Supercars has already run four successful tests including one at SMP (formerly Eastern Creek Raceway), although only short sections of the track were floodlit and some drivers are yet to be fully convinced.

“We’ll have to see how it goes. We’re not sure yet how much light there will be,” says former champion, Mark Winterbottom.

“We’re not like GT cars, which have powerful headlights they can use to see where they’re going. In daylight, you can barely tell when they are on.”

The SMP night race is the first in more than a decade, although it has already been tried at the Sydney track using a shorter course than the one for this weekend.

Night racing was a regular attraction at the now-defunct Oran Park circuit in Sydney during the 1970s and 1980s.

More recent night time racing was focussed on Melbourne’s Calder Park in the late 1990s alongside the derelict Thunderdome oval, which was brilliantly lit by purpose-built Musco lighting towers.

The package for the Sydney race is built around 50 towers in a combination of temporary roadside units and six specialised mobile stadium floodlights.

There are two types of illumination, some LED and some halogen, with the lighting grouped to give a better colour balance for the television cameras.

But Casey stresses that fans and television viewers should not expect the sort of bright night lighting used for Formula 1 races at Singapore and Abu Dhabi, where the Supercars also raced once.

“This is a night race. Those are daytime races run at night, based on the amount of lighting on the track,” Casey says.

“We want to have the excitement and spectacle of racing after dark. Glowing brakes, flashing headlights, flames from the exhaust…”

Supercars has put together a comprehensive package of lighting advice for teams, covering everything from brightening sponsor logos to the potential for ‘Fast and Furious’ style coloured lighting below the cars.

But few teams are expected to go bold with their lighting, with DJR Team Penske running their normal daytime livery and the Red Bull Holden Racing Team only adding a slightly reflective panel behind their major logos.

Tickford Racing is considering a backlit Monster Energy logo on Cam Waters’ Falcon, although it is not confirmed.

Even so, cars will carry extra lighting so the television cameras can cover the drivers in the cabins. There will be low-level lighting inside the cars, with a pair of 100mm low-voltage LED boards mounted alongside and above the drivers.