Snapshot

The Holden Racing Team make its way to the top-end this weekend for the SkyCity Triple Crown Darwin and this event comes with tyre and track changes which are set to spice up the racing.

Resurfacing of the 2.87km circuit has been completed and as a result lap times are expected to drop dramatically. While tyre degradation has been a talking point of past events, the new surface is expected to be kinder on tyres and provide more grip.

For the first time this year, an additional set of soft compound tyres has been added to Saturday’s allocation with the rules stating qualifying two and race two can only be contested on these tyres. They also cannot be saved for Sunday’s qualifying session and race. Teams will again receive an extra set of hard tyres, like they did in Winton, for Friday’s practice which must be surrendered at the end of the day.

Hidden Valley has one of the longest straights of all the tracks the V8 Supercars championship visits and has previously seen top speeds of over 270km per hour. It is also one of the warmest locations the series travels to and during the races cabin temperatures can reach around 65 degrees. Drivers will easily exhaust their 3L water reservoir and still lose 2-3kg of body fluid.

Words of Wisdom:

Garth Tander, #2 Holden Commodore VF:
“There is addition to the tyre rule in Darwin which means, like Winton, we will receive a hard set of tyres for practice. Then we will also get a set of soft tyres for the Saturday afternoon race, so qualifying two will be on softs and race two will be on softs. I think having a hard tyre qualifying and race, and a soft qualifying and race is not a bad thing.”

“It will mix up the field and we have seen this year that some cars are better on hards and some are better on softs. So instead of having both Saturday races the same this will mix it up and make it interesting. We also have more tyres for practice which means we will be on track more on Friday, which is better for the fans.”

“It’s hot in Darwin, it’s very, very hot in comparison to Melbourne where it is 10 degrees at the moment. There is also very high UV in Darwin and that is the thing that will hurt the tyres the most. The heat is an issue, but the UV is the thing that hurts the tyre.”

“On top of all that we have a new surface this year. The track has been fully resurfaced which means much more grip, and the tyre degradation numbers we have historically won’t be relevant because of it.”

“Darwin had about three different surfaces around the track so at least now it is all consistent. The setup was always compromised for all the different types of corners they had. Turn one is very heavy braking but turn four is a very slow hairpin and you need plenty of front grip. But the surface also influenced that as well, whereas now with the grip being consistent we should be able to refine the setup and have it more to my liking throughout the entire lap.”

James Courtney, #22 Holden Commodore VF:
“This year the track is going to be completely different to what we have previously known in terms of car characteristics and tyre longevity because of the resurfacing that has been done. In practice we are going to have to run through quite a few things especially in terms of spring balance. I think the setup is going to be very different to what we have used there previously.”

“When we get up to Hidden Valley we will have to see how they have changed the kerbs and what bumps we can and can’t see, then we’ll make our plan from there.”

“I think it is great we have another set of tyres for Saturday’s race and I think it will spice up that second race. Also being able qualify on the softs will make that more enjoyable and interesting too.”

“Darwin is always one of the warmest places we race, but by this point of the season we normally have pretty good race based fitness after doing the first half of the year. So even though the conditions are very hot it shouldn’t be too much of a shock unless there are extreme temperatures, which we are not expecting.”