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Shane Van Gisbergen will be praying for more rain today as he tries to clean sweep the weekend in Race 28 of the V8 Supercars Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park. Join The Roar for live commentary and a blog of qualifying and race 28 in the championship from 12:40pm (AEST).
Yesterday, Tekno Autosport’s Van Gisbergen, won Races 26 and 27 in the championship in dominant fashion in wet and wild conditions.
He survived the wet conditions and challenges from Whincup (Race 26) and Mostert (Race 27) to win his 6th and 7th race in the V8 Supercars.
He was the best in the wet yesterday and will be hoping for similar conditions today in race 28.
The forecast for today is not as bad as yesterday but there is a chance of rain in today’s race.
There is a 60 percent chance of rain and between 1-5mm of rain is forecasted for the area that is around the Eastern Creek circuit. If it does rain then Van Gisbergen will be hard to beat again.
What will also be interesting is how the teams deal with the tyres if it is wet in qualifying and the race today.
The teams only have 3 sets of wet tyres for the weekend and would have used almost two sets of them in yesterday’s races. Those who have managed this situation will be the ones in contention for the race win today if it rains.
If the race is dry then tyres don’t become an issue in the race.
With one set of softs for the race, and plenty of hard tyres, after all the wet racing yesterday, each driver has plenty of sets of tyres to burn in the race.
It also opens up the race with all drivers having limited time in the dry at the circuit.
In the time they did have in the dry, Whincup and McLaughlin showed pace, as they took the pole positions for Race 26 and 27 respectively.
They were also strong, with Shane Van Gisbergen, in the two practice sessions yesterday.
If the race becomes dry then these two will be in contention for the win.
It was a horrible day for McLaughlin yesterday who encountered mechanical problems in both races. In Race 26, his power steering failed, which required an engine change for Race 27.
At the start of Race 27, after the rush of getting the car fixed in time for the race, his right rear tyre fell off the car. This caused damage to the car and it ruined any chance of a good result for the Volvo driver.
His pace has been excellent this year and this weekend. His reliability, and race pace, has been the opposite.
If he is any chance of winning today then the team needs to sort out this issue.
Jamie Whincup on the other hand had a perfect day yesterday as he extended his lead in the championship. He increased the lead by another 54 points and leads by 69 heading into today’s race.
His championship rival, Mark Winterbottom, will look to bounce back after losing points to Whincup yesterday.
He finished 11th and 12th in the two races respectively and will be looking to bounce back in better conditions today.
It is a similar story for the Holden Racing Team, and Nissan, who showed glimpses of form yesterday, but ultimately fell away at the end of the races after their drivers ran into trouble.
With plenty of unpredictability heading into today’s race it promises to be a race full of surprises and action.
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