We are back across the ditch this weekend to visit our friends in Taupo, New Zealand!

It’s great to be able to take our sport internationally and see Ryan Wood race in front of his home crowd!

The cars safely arrived at the Tauranga port on Monday after their journey via cargo ship to New Zealand, ready to hit the track on Friday!

Format

Friday starts off with two half-hour practice sessions.

Saturday sees Format 2 qualifying for Race 8 and 9 which will have a 10 minute part 1 that will set the grid for positions 11 – 24, the 10 fastest cars will go back out for an 8-minute session to set their position on the grid. We will see the first of two 120km races on Saturday at 12.05pm local time with lights going out for the second race at 4.05pm local time.

The top 10 shootout is back on Sunday for Race 10 after qualifying in the morning to set the grid for positions 11-24. We will then see a longer 200km race to round out the weekend in Taupo which kicks off at 3.05pm.

The Track

The track spans over 3.3km, offering a mix of fast straights and tight corners making it a challenging track for drivers.

Keep an eye out for turns 5 and 12 where you will see the best passing opportunities over the weekend. The drivers must be fully focused, especially as they navigate their way through the tricky turns 9, 10 and 11.

Tyres

Tyres will be a big talking point this weekend, we will be running the Dunlop Soft for Race 8 and 10 but we will be running the Dunlop Super Soft for Race 9.

We only have two sets of Dunlop Super-Soft tyres for the entire weekend which will be used for qualifying and Race 9. What does this mean? The first time the Super-Soft tyre will be used this year is for qualifying for Race 9 as there is a limited amount in the tyre bank, this will cause some action for sure!

Pitstops

With the new 440km format there will be one compulsory pitstop with a minimum of two tyres on Saturday’s Races 8 and 9. For Sunday’s 200km Race 10 there will be two compulsory pitstops with a minimum of two tyres in each stop.

Weather

It looks like the rain will stay away this weekend with temperatures in the teens.

How to Watch

Every session, every lap, will be live on Fox Sports and Kayo.

For the Kiwi fans, Sky Sports will have you covered across the weekend.

For the full TV guide, please CLICK HERE.

Ryan Wood

“Being able to race in New Zealand is super special, l was really close to collecting my first trophy in Taupo last year so that’s definitely what we are after this weekend!

“This’ll be my first time with two back-to-back Supercars races in one day, recovery Saturday night will be really important so we get to the track in top form for the final race on Sunday.

“The crew did an awesome job turning the cars around from the Grand Prix to get them into the shipping containers within 48 hours, glad to see them arrive in NZ safely.

Chaz Mostert

“My wife’s family are Kiwi’s so I like to claim this as my second home round, as the Kiwi’s would say, I’m keen as to go racing this weekend!

“Qualifying is a big focus for us this weekend, we have back-to-back qualifying on Friday with the Soft tyre up first then the Super-Soft for the second session, it’ll make that second session pretty interesting as that’ll be our first time on the Super-Soft this season.

“It’ll be cool to do track to town again this year, the whole town got behind us last year, which was awesome, looking forward to doing it again.