Teams express mixed opinions on Sydney schedule

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: 2 August 2023

The 2023 Sydney SuperNight was the second two-day event of the Supercars season, but for the teams it felt anything but.

Whilst the first Supercars session was not until Saturday afternoon, teams were busy on Thursday getting garages setup to ensure everything was in place before the supports took over Sydney Motorsport Park on Friday.

Even after racing Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, teams stayed on Monday to conduct ride days.

The frustration was clear to team owners during the event with the inability to get some valuable night time running before the race under the Saturday night spotlight also a major point.

In 2022 almost half of the season were two-day affairs at Tasmania, Wanneroo, Winton, Hidden Valley, The Bend and Pukekohe.

But in 2023 only three are on the cards with next round at The Bend the final time on track sessions will be condensed to the weekend.

Last year’s Sydney SuperNight started on a Friday, while the entire quadruple header at “Eastern Creek” in 2021 were two-day affairs during COVID times.

But Brad Jones Racing team owner Brad Jones felt 2023 dragged out too long.

“I have got my sleeping bag ready to sleep in the truck tonight,” he joked.”

“I mean it is just crazy we have been here for a week and it is something Supercars need to have a look at.

“The idea is for us to turn up, unpack everything on Friday and race Saturday and Sunday.

“The race meeting has been great with plenty of action and controversy, everything that we needed, but turning up here on a Wednesday or Thursday because you can’t put the trailer back down, there has got to be a better way.

“It is the longest race meeting I have been to.”

Dick Johnson Racing team principal Ben Croke believed the teams should have been able to enjoy a night practice session to gain valuable data ahead of the only night race of the season.

“I think we should be doing a practice session tonight (Friday) under lights before we go straight into the race. We are all here and set up,” he said.

“We had a similar thing in Perth a couple of years ago where we sat around doing nothing on the Friday and low and behold we were running on the Friday night.

“There are reasons behind why we do all two day meetings so it is something to review.”

Triple Eight team principal Jamie Whincup offered support for the two-day race meeting, but believes Supercars can be more compact with its schedule.

“I am neither here nor there but I love the two-day event factor. Just get in and get it done with two big days of massive action and get out of there,” he said.

“In my opinion we have an operational issue, we can’t use the pit lane because all the support categories are in there and you can’t pull your tailgate down because it’s an O,H and S issue so we all had to roll in on Thursday.

“Then we had half a day a mad rush to get everything out of the truck and into the garage and pit boom set up and then we sat around all day Friday.

“If we are here we may as well be racing but if we fix the operational issue then we can have a crack.

“It is not easy trying to create a calendar but I think we can do a better job operationally.

“We get in early to do pit stop practice yet we have a couple of blocks during the day, so lets do pit stop practice and a grid walk for the punters at 9.00 together.”

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