WHAT TIME THE PERTH NIGHT RACES WILL START

Later race starts and finishes than 2018 SuperNight scheduled for Perth…

STORY: WILL DALE
IMAGE: AN1 IMAGES (DIRK KLYNSMITH)

THE main races at next month’s inaugural Pirtek Perth SuperNight will start at 8:45pm AEST for east coast Supercars fans watching on television.

As announced last year, the first night-time championship event at Barbagallo Wanneroo Raceway is adoptingthe traditional SuperSprint format, hosting a 120km race on Friday night followed by a 200km race the following night.

Supercars released the event schedule on Tuesday to competitors, confirming that both races will start at 6:45pm local time in Western Australia, or 8:45pm in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.

In comparison, last year’s single 300km race under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park began at 7:20pm AEST and was scheduled to go time certain at 9:38pm AEST.

In comparison, this year’s races will finish – at latest – one lap after 9:38pm AEST on Friday night, with Saturday’s longer race going time certain one lap after 10:13pm AEST.

The scheduled start time of the races also guarantees they will truly be night races, with sunset expected to occur just over an hour before the cars line up on the grid.

The meeting runs across Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with Supercars not hitting the track until the afternoon on each day.

Thursday’s running consists of a half-hour night time practice session, starting at 8:40pm AEST.

Friday and Saturday each feature a practice session to determine the seeding for qualifying, with the three-part elimination format in use on both days.

Here’s the full Supercars weekend schedule in AEST:

THURSDAY
8:40pm – Supercars Practice 1 (30 min)

FRIDAY
2:50pm – Supercars Practice 2 (30 min)
5:55pm – Supercars Qualifying for Race 11 (3 x 10 min)
8:45pm – Supercars Race 11 (50 laps, or 1 lap after 9:38pm)

SATURDAY
3:05pm – Supercars Practice 3 (30 min)
4:50pm – Supercars Qualifying for Race 12 (3 x 10 min)
8:45pm – Supercars Race 12 (83 laps, or 1 lap after 10:13pm)

V8 Sleuth strives to both preserve and celebrate Australian motorsport’s rich history, from tracking and tracing the race-by-race histories and changing ownership of individual cars, to capturing and retelling the stories of the people who made our sport what it is today.