It’s Saturday night in Western Sydney. You’re on your front porch admiring your VX Commodore sitting in the driveway while sipping on a couple of cold ones…Red Bulls we mean.
Suddenly a glow catches your eye as you finish off that last drop of liquid-y goodness.
“I wonder what that is?” you ask yourself while reaching into the Esky for another refreshment.
“Is the Rooty Hill RSL having a fireworks display?” No, that’s not it.
“Is it the sunrise? Damn, how many drinks have I had?” Again, not quite.
All of a sudden you realise; “Yes, that’s it! Supercars are back under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park!”
Yes, we’re just as excited to see SMP lit up like a Christmas tree once again, and so are our drivers Shane ‘SVG van Gisbergen and Jamie ‘JDub’ Whincup. It was a happy hunting ground for the team since our last appearance under lights, and we’re looking to put on a show once again.
“The last night race for us went pretty well, but the biggest thing for us is that it’s been two weeks since we last raced there. It’s pretty rare that we go back to a track in the same year, let alone the next round,” SVG said.
Although we’ll be retuning to Western Sydney for another round of Supercars action, the tyre strategies will be vastly different. JDub, can you explain the differences to us?
“It’s pretty basic. As soon as we start qualifying onwards, you’ve got two sets of soft tyres and three sets of hard tyres, whereas when we were there a couple of weeks ago, it was five sets of soft tyres. That small change creates a massive change as far as strategy goes.
“So, as you know, they’ve changed up the rules a fair bit. There’s obviously a different tyre strategy, but the biggest change will be racing under lights. I’m looking forward to getting back there, and hopefully the rain stays away so we can have a cracking battle under lights.” JDub said.
“The tyre strategy is going to be crazy,” says SVG.
“We only have five sets: two softs and three hards, and we need six sets if we’re going to put new tyres on every pit stop, so we’re going to have to reuse one of those sets. It’ll be interesting to see what tyre strategies each team uses just to get a result.”
On a serious note, the Red Bull Holden Racing team would like to thank all the Victorian Supercars teams, drivers, personnel, and their families left behind in Victoria for their massive sacrifice to keep our sport alive during these challenging times.
“It’s a pretty amazing commitment by those guys – it surely is appreciated by us. No doubt we’re living in crazy times, and it’s a massive sacrifice by all the Victorian teams to leave their families behind, but everyone loves this sport and we want to keep racing, so it will all be worth it this weekend when we’re on the grid,” SVG said.
“I have massive praise for all the Victorians that have made massive sacrifices in leaving their families to get on the road to keep our sport going. We have massive respect for all of those guys,” said JDub.
On-track action from Sydney Motorsport Park begins Saturday July 18, with drivers battling it out over three races on Saturday and Sunday.
