A NEW, softer tyre will be introduced prior to Round 3 of the 2023 S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship.
The V8-powered open-wheel category tested a raft of alterations last September, leading to the use of push-to-pass and a revised suspension system in the end-of-year Tasman Series.
Tyre supplier Hoosier also rolled out a new compound and construction of tyre at that same test with a view to a 2023 debut.
Australian Racing Group supremo Barry Rogers confirmed that will indeed take effect, but not until after the first two rounds are run on the existing rubber (at Symmons Plains next month and Phillip Island in May).
Winton, across June 9-11, will therefore be the site of the tyre debut.
“The first two rounds this year we’ll still run the existing tyre and from Round 3 onwards it will change to a softer compound tyre,” Rogers told V8 Sleuth.
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“Still a Hoosier, but just one that generates heat a bit quicker and a bit softer compound but still a tyre that wears very well (minimally).
“The plan is for one set per round to keep it affordable.”
It is the second successive year with a new tyre package for S5000, a 2022 edition having proven unable to fix warm-up issues.
While the Tasmanian field target is for just 12 cars, Rogers continues to be buoyed by the ability for S5000 to be a platform for drivers.
James Golding was an S5000 regular before scoring the chance to return to Supercars, Nathan Herne won the 2022 Tasman Series and is now a full-time professional driver in the United States, and Cooper Webster has graduated into the British-based GB4 championship.
“It is a tremendous category and guys like James Golding rebuilt themselves through that category and to see what he’s doing these days, it really does sharpen up the drivers,” Rogers reiterated.
“In Australia, everything is about Supercars and there’s no point hiding that, it is all about Supercars.
“All the young guys want to do it, all the Supercars teams tell them what they should be doing and S5000 isn’t supported through that category, so 100 percent it is a battle.
“Their focus of course is Super2 and Super3 because that’s where they can generate some money through their cars and everything else, but let me tell you, from a driver point of view, if you can drive an S5000, you can drive absolutely everything.”
