Tomorrow’s tight timeline means the ultimate for fans – less practice time, more nail-biting racing at the ITM 500 Auckland.
The ANZAC Day schedule will see the 25 V8 Supercars on-track at 11.30am local time for a quick 30-minute practice session. But with just a 15-minute turnaround, the session is basically back-to-back with qualifying.
It will be a 20-minute desperate dash for ARMOR ALL Pole Position ahead of the 35-lap, 100km race. Beginning at 1.35pm, it is the only V8 Supercar race being staged on the historic day – giving a win even more meaning.
The one brief practice session means teams will need to have a strong base setup in the car and be able to think on their feet.
“You’ve got to get on it quick – you’ve got to make sure when you roll out of the truck it’s a good car,” Mark Winterbottom, who is placed second in the Championship, told v8supercars.com.au.
“You just want to tune it, you don’t want to reinvent the wheel because the sessions go so quick.
“Before you know it we’ll be determining our starting positions and starting the race (and) race setup is really important.”
But while the Pepsi Max Ford driver is predicting Friday to be tough, there is a positive to come out of the practice schedule – times will be comparable and indicative of pace.
“The only good part is that you get lots of tyres – because we don’t take used tyres – so when we roll out, we roll out with brand new tyres,” he said.
“Sometimes in practice you walk out and think, my tyres had 50km and that guy had 10km, he had tyres from Tassie, but he had tyres from Perth; all these excuses… Everyone rolls out here on brand new tyres. So if you’re p20 on Friday, you’re genuinely p20. So it really will tell you quite quickly where you’re at.”
Leading Nissan driver Michael Caruso praised the ITM 500 Auckland schedule, believing spectators will be the big beneficiaries.
“Most of all, the Friday fans will be the winners – they want to see the cars out there competing for keeps. I’m looking forward to it,” Caruso said.
“I enjoy the limited track time. As a category and as drivers, we’re at a high level, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to roll them out of the truck or plane and be straight on top of it… There is barely time between practice and qualifying as well. You’ll be fueling up, changing tyres and sending us back out.”
The Norton Hornet feels the time pressure will separate the boys from the men and determine who is really prepared for the event.
“I think it’s going to reward the teams that have done their homework. If you have everything in order prior to practice, you won’t need to build up to the pace – you’ll be on it from the word go…
“This is the way of the future, as far as I’m concerned, and it reminds me of racing in go-karts. We’d have a five-minute carbie session and then you’re straight into the racing!”
Both Caruso and Winterbottom have tasted success this year. Caruso recorded Nissan’s first ARMOR ALL Pole Position at the Formula One Rolex Australian Grand Prix last month, and Winterbottom earned his first race win for the season – and first since his Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 breakthrough last October – at the Winton event.
“The way the sessions are, being so short and so many races, turning up (to Pukekohe) with good form is probably more important than ever,” ‘Frosty’ said. “So probably the best position to be in, coming off a race win and going into the next race…
“I had probably the best round, but effectively the worst round I’ve ever had, last time I was there (at Pukekohe). I was quickest by four-tenths in the majority of the races, which is unheard of in our sport, but when you don’t finish it doesn’t matter how quick you are.
“To have good form leading into it is comforting because it’s a pretty high commitment track – you need a lot of confidence to attack it.”
There will be practice, two qualifying sessions and two 100km races on Saturday, with qualifying and the big 200km dash on Sunday.
Winterbottom trails Craig Lowndes at the top of the points by 28.
