It’s been a short turnaround for the crew getting the cars prepped and ready for the Darwin Triple Crown, with the cars having travelled directly from Perth to Darwin.
The Indigenous liveries are all complete and the cars looks incredible, we can’t wait to share them with you VERY shortly, Monica Taylor has done an incredible job with the artwork.
For us Melbournians we are looking forward to the heat of Darwin, Winter has started to hit home so we will be making the most of it whilst we are there, meanwhile the drivers will be chasing the shade and ice baths to keep cool before they go racing.
The Track
2.9km, 14 turns, and one heck of a long main straight, around 900m, where cars will hit a top speed of 271km leading into the biggest passing opportunity into turn 1.
Cars need to thread the needle into turns 2,3,4 and 5 which is another passing area, so keep your eyes peeled.
Format
The weekend starts of with two 30-minute qualifying sessions on Friday.
Saturday sees back-to-back two-part qualifying sessions for Race 17 and Race 18, Part 1 will determine the grid positions for P11 – P25 with Part 2 determining the grid positions for P1 – P10. Saturday’s 120km races will kick off at 11.45am and 3.10pm.
It’s an early start on Sunday with qualifying for Race 19 starting at 9.05am local time, with Part 1 setting the grid for P19 – P25 and Part 2 setting the grid for P11 – P19. The top 10 fastest driers from Part 2 will score themselves a ticket to the top 10 shootout before the lights go out for the 200km Race 19 at 2.40pm.
Tyres
We will be running both the Soft and Super-Soft tyres this weekend, for Race 17 and 19 we will be on the Dunlop Soft tyre and the Super-Soft for Race 18.
Pitstops
For the two races on Saturday there is one compulsory pitstop with a minimum of two tyres to be changed, for Sunday’s 200km race there are two compulsory pitstops.
Weather
It’s going to be a hot one with temperatures in the 20’s to 30’s all weekend.
How to Watch
This weekend will be covered live on free to air Channel 7 from Saturday onwards, you can also catch the racing on Fox Sports and Kayo across the entire weekend.
Full broadcast times can be found HERE.
Ryan Wood
Luck definitely hasn’t been on our side recently, but that car is super-fast, I want to be converting that speed into strong race results this weekend.
We have been building strong momentum the last few rounds and ticking off my first pole and race win in Perth was awesome, that feeling is like no other.
Darwin was a track myself and the Team struggled at last year, it was the first time I had been at the track and I made plenty of rookie mistakes, I have really been focusing on the data and areas I can improve on as a driver coming into this weekend.
Chaz Mostert
We ate a lot of cheeseburgers here last year but that’s not the plan this weekend, we want to be qualifying up the front and staying there.
It’s been a tight turnaround from Perth to Darwin, some of the crew haven’t even been home to see their families, a massive shoutout to them, I really appreciate the hard work they put into this team so we can go racing.
It’s going to be a hot one this weekend, it’ll be interesting to see how the body feels on Sunday after two races on Saturday in the heat, preparation will be key for sure.