Supercars shortens Symmons Plains race distances
For the second round in succession the Supercars Championship will run condensed races at this weekend’s Symmons Plains SuperSprint, the category cutting off two laps from each of the three races.
After a similar change was made to the previous round at Sandown Raceway, the Symmons Plains races will now run for 44 laps each as opposed to the 46 laps they were originally slated for, taking the maximum race distance to just over 106km.
The move is likely due to some teams having fuel economy issues while Supercars wants the races to remain pit stop free and to let the drivers push throughout the whole race as opposed to conserving to make the finish on fuel.
As the shortest track on the Supercars calendar, Symmons Plains will be the first this year with the new qualifying system for Saturday and Sunday racing.
For Saturday’s race, the first ten minutes of the session will see the field split in to two groups, one car from each two-car team or grouped garage getting a five minute window to set a lap time.
When the first session is up, the bottom four cars from each group won’t be able to take part in Part 2 which is to set the grid from positions 11-16 while the final Part 3 session will determine the top ten starters.
The grid for the Sunday qualifying will be easier to sort with two-eight minute sessions for each race, split in the same fashion as Part 1 of qualifying for Saturday’s race. The combined times from the two groups will finalise the starting positions on the grid.
Round three of the championship will take place from Saturday the 17th of April to Sunday the 18th with a maximum of 100 points available across all three races.
