A short-lived, high-speed tyre will continue the V8 Supercar championship’s rules shake-up when it debuts at this weekend’s event at Winton Raceway.
The new softer tyre compound is expected to make cars up to one and a half seconds per lap faster at Winton, but it also wears out much quicker than the normal racing tyre.
Teams must use the new Dunlop tyre in either one of the two races at all sprint rounds this season, starting with Winton.
With Ford driver Jamie Whincup dominating this year’s series in a rocket-like Team Vodafone car, rival teams may be able to claw back time on him by using the softer tyre at the right time in a race.
V8 officials say the tyres can provide a significant boost of speed when needed – though the advantage only lasts for a handful of laps.
Holden driver Rick Kelly said increased closing speed for cars which use the tyres compared with those that don’t will lead to more unpredictable racing, and probably more accidents.
“With a lot of the driving we’ve got in the category, there are going to be a lot of misjudgments between drivers and there’s going to be a lot of accidents because cars will be misjudging how fast the car in front of them is going at any time,” Kelly said.
“You will need to be aware that there are going to be cars that have got quite a considerable speed advantage, or disadvantage, at certain times.”
Ford Performance Racing boss Tim Edwards said the softer tyre would provide a new twist for his drivers Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards, and their engineers, this weekend.
“The fans are going to see cars running in 20th on the right tyres at the right time win the race,” Edwards said.
“Every team in pit lane is going to think they’ve got the right strategy … until Winton’s over no-one’s going to know who did and it will change for every race anyway.”
The new tyres are the last of a raft of changes introduced to this year’s championship, including abolition of compulsory pit stop windows and a revamped qualifying system.
V8 Supercar officials will also persist with a 20-minute Sunday qualifying session for the second of this weekend’s races at Winton.
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