THE Repco Bathurst 1000 will feature the Soft tyre for the first time in 2023 with both of Supercars’ endurance races to be run on the category’s softer tyre compounds.
The ‘Great Race’ has been run on the hardest tyre available in Dunlop’s range since the company became the category’s control tyre supplier in 2002.
The change comes amid the introduction of Gen3 and a move towards softer tyres, given the new generation cars’ lighter weight, and follows Supercars’ trial of Dunlop’s soft tyre when the Gen3 prototypes lapped Mount Panorama during demonstration runs last year.
Sandown will also switch from Soft to Super Soft rubber as the circuit prepares to host a 500-kilometre enduro for the first time since 2019.
The announcement comes as Supercars releases the race formats for the 2023 season.
Dunlop, now in its 22nd year as the category’s sole tyre supplier, will once again deploy three dry compounds of its SP Sport Maxx control tyre – Hard, Soft and Super Soft – along with a brand new wet weather tyre.
The hard tyre will only appear once during 2023 with it to be utilised at Albert Park, where it will share use with the Super Soft for the only mixed compound round of the season.
The Soft tyre will be used at Newcastle, Wanneroo, Townsville, Sydney Motorsport Park, The Bend, Bathurst, Gold Coast and Adelaide.
Along with Albert Park, the Super Soft will be used at Symmons Plains, Hidden Valley and the Sandown 500.
Compulsory tyre stops will feature in the sprint rounds at Wanneroo, Symmons Plains, Hidden and The Bend for a minimum of two tyres.
The Albert Park round, meanwhile, will feature compulsory four-tyre stops in each of the four sprint races.
Sydney’s Saturday night race will be 200km and will feature a pair of two-tyre stops including fuel, while the Sunday race will be a single-stop 100km sprint.
The ‘Super500’ events at Newcastle, Townsville, Gold Coast and Adelaide will be two-tyre, two-compulsory stop races.
The Penrite Oil Sandown 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000 will, like the Super500 rounds, feature refueling.
Competitors will hand back two sets of ‘event marked’ tyres and pre-marked tyres for each car before the first qualifying session.
As was the case in 2022, every Dunlop Super2 and Dunlop Super3 Series round will see each driver allocated eight new Hard tyres.
The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship gets underway at the Newcastle 500 on March 10-12.
