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With just three races to until the endurance season begins at Sandown, the event at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend is vital as teams and drivers try to prepare for those races with success in races 26, 27 and 28 of the championship.
Join The Roar for live commentary and a blog of qualifying and races 26 and 27 in the championship from 12:30pm (AEST).
Heading into the weekend, Jamie Whincup leads the championship, after dominating the last nine races in the series.
Whincup has won six of the last nine races, and finished in the top ten in the other three races.
He has won twice at each of the last three events of the championship. Whincup is in ominous form heading into this weekend and the upcoming Pirtek Endurance Cup.
He has form at Sydney Motorsport Park as well after winning a race in 2012 when the championship last came to Eastern Creek.
It is also a happy hunting ground for his team, Triple 888 Racing, who won their first ever event as a team in 2005 at the venue. The driver, who won that race, Craig Lowndes, is also someone to look out for this weekend.
The two time winner at the circuit is currently third in the championship and bounced back to form at the last event in Queensland.
Lowndes finished in second in all three races in Ipwsich and will be looking to replicate that feat in Sydney this weekend.
It is also a big weekend for Mark Winterbottom, who lost his lead in the championship, at the last event.He struggled in qualifying during the last event, and while he raced well, he struggled to gain back the positions lost during qualifying.
He will be hoping to qualify better this weekend in Sydney to have a successful event. Maintaining distance to Whincup in the championship is also important for the Ford Performance Racing driver.
The three races are also vital for James Courtney, Shane Van Gisbergen and Fabian Coulthard. These three drivers are within 260 points of the championship lead and need solid weekends to remain in the hunt.
Only once in the history of the championship has Jamie Whincup lost the title after leading by more than 200 points during the season.
That was in 2010 when James Courtney won the championship.
If Courtney, or the other two, are to repeat that feat then they need to start chipping away at the lead this weekend to be any chance of winning the title. This weekend is similar to the last event in Queensland with two 100 kilometres races on Saturday, and a 200 kilometre race on Sunday.
What is different is the tyre allocation this weekend. In Queensland it was an event dominated by the soft tyre.
This weekend is the opposite with teams using the hard compound tyre for today’s two races. On Sunday, they have one set of soft tyres, for the 200kilometres race.
Overall they have five sets of hard tyres and one set of softs for the weekend. How the teams handle that will be the intriguing part of the weekend.
Do you use plenty of sets on Saturday to get the win, or do you save some for Sunday’s race, which is a double point race?
That will create headaches for the teams and the drivers.
What will also create a headache is the event being reduced from three days to two. Usually we know who has the pace, and who doesn’t, on a Friday when the practice sessions are done.
This weekend is different. Practice will be held this morning just a couple of hours from qualifying for the two races today.
It will be a jam packed day for the drivers and teams. Whoever deals with it the best will be the teams that are successful in today’s races.
It promises to be a long day for drivers, fans, and teams.
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