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Time is running out in the championship battle, and the Endurance Cup, as the field travels to Surfers Paradise for the Gold Coast 600. Join The Roar for a live blog of qualifying, the top ten shootout, and Race 31 of the championship from 12:15pm (AEDT).
Just seven races remain in the 2014 championship as drivers try to chase down Jamie Whincup for the title.
Despite running out of fuel at the Bathurst 1000 while leading the race on the final lap, Whincup extended his lead in the championship after the Great Race.
A 5th place finish put him ahead of Mark Winterbottom and Craig Lowndes at Bathurst and gave him a 297 point lead in the title race.
With just 900 points left to be won in this year’s championship, Winterbottom and Lowndes will need to claw back the gap soon, to be in contention for the title.
Mathematically nine drivers remain in contention with Garth Tander – in ninth – 885 points behind in the championship.
Realistically though only five drivers remain in contention with Shane Van Gisbergen and James Courtney in the hunt for the championship with Lowndes, Winterbottom and Whincup.
Both are 451 points behind Whincup and would need big weekends at the Gold Coast to remain in contention.
Yesterday, during practice, both started the weekend in the right way with Van Gisbergen and Courtney first and second overall in the four sessions.
Van Gisbergen, who went quickest in Practice 4, set a time of 1:10.4729.
He was almost four tenths of a second quicker than Courtney who did a time of 1:10.8135.
Rounding out the top five was David Reynolds, Jamie Whincup, and the Bathurst 1000 winner, Chaz Mostert.
Today sees the first of two races for the weekend.
Both are 300 kilometres in length, and both have qualifying sessions before each race. Today is different though with a top ten shootout to be held before the race this afternoon.
This weekend also sees the use of soft tyres for the first time since the Sydney Motorsport Park round. 32 tyres are allocated to each team for the weekend and it will be interesting to see how the teams handle it.
How the co-drivers handle the tyres – which will be used for the first time this year by them – will also be a key part to the weekend.
Finally the pressures of the tyres will also be a big talking point over the two races. At Bathurst the tyre pressure was set at a minimum of 17 psi for all sessions in the V8 Supercar championship.
This weekend, with the return of the soft tyres, that new pressure will cause degradation to the tyre. At the previous round the psi was lowered by the teams to make the tyre last longer.
If they do that this weekend, they could be disqualified from the race, or given a drive through penalty by the stewards. This will be a critical part of the weekend for all teams.
Another crucial focus will be on the circuit itself. Gold Coast is an unforgiving circuit surrounded by concrete. One mistake, one wrong move, and the circuit will bite hard and cause large damage to cars.
After Bathurst, three cars had to be replaced because of the damage they sustained during or before the race.
Those teams, and others, will be hoping the same situation doesn’t happen at the Gold Coast. Staying damage free is the goal for a majority of teams this weekend.
Another problem is the kerbs around the circuit. They have already attracted controversy with multiple drivers given penalties in practice for jumping the kerb at turn one and four.
One driver said that it could create a race where multiple drivers, and teams, cop drive through penalties for jumping the kerb more than three times during the race. He said expect drivers to be laps behind because of the kerbs and the sensors.
Finally the Endurance Cup is also on the line this weekend. After the final race on Sunday, two drivers will win the cup. Like the championship, everyone is chasing Jamie Whincup for the lead.
Whincup and Paul Dumbrell lead by 30 points over Mostert and Paul Morris with up to 15 teams in contention for the cup.
Realistically though, only six combinations can win the title.
Courtney/Murphy (third with 408pts), Lowndes/Richards (fourth with 396), Winterbottom/Owen (fifth with 360) and Percat/Gavin (sixth with 336) look likely to be the only other combinations able to catch Mostert and Whincup.
Whincup and Dumbrell remain the favourites though, and their consistency in endurance races will be hard to beat.
I see them taking out the Endurance Cup and making it back to back wins for Triple 8 in the trophy.
If the racing today is anything like the Bathurst 1000 then we are all in for another treat.
With the circuit layout at Gold Coast, and the concrete around it, today’s racing could replicate the drama of Bathurst.
This could be another race that will be worth watching. Join The Roar as we cover everything from Race 31 in the championship.
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