TYRE degradation was a hot topic throughout Friday practice at the NTI Townsville 500, as a gruelling 88-lap race awaits this afternoon.
Drivers from both Chevrolet and Ford reported high levels of wear.
“We did quite a lot of laps in P1 – I need to do quite a lot more (in a race stint) and I’m quite concerned,” said Bryce Fullwood, who was second fastest in Practice 2.
“I think it will be entertaining. I’m interested to see what happens.”
Cam Waters agreed – “we’re going to be hanging on” was his take – before noting that degradation rates can improve across a race weekend.
“Usually practice is always worse because the track is green and we’re sliding around so hopefully it rubbers in a little bit before tomorrow’s race and it’s a bit better than what we all think,” he said.
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The overall theme prompted a suggestion of whether a three-stop strategy could come into play, especially if a driver that has a poor Saturday outing can save a set of rubber for Sunday.
Two compulsory pitstops are required to be completed in each race this weekend.
Fullwood very much bought into the possibility of a three-stopper.
“We’re a set of tyres down this weekend from normal and obviously previously if there’s an early Safety Car or whatever else we’ve had enough sets to play with and we don’t have that now,” said the Brad Jones Racing driver.
“So I feel like absolutely if someone has a shocker tomorrow and has another set up their sleeve, watch out.”
Qualifying gets underway at 10:15am this morning, with the top 10 drivers proceeding to a one-lap shootout from 12pm.
The race is scheduled for a 2:40pm start.
