'Big offs' and mistakes tipped for SuperNight

Will Davison believes "there's going to be some big offs" in the PIRTEK Perth SuperNight races, given the unique combination of a new track surface and racing under lights.

Drivers are dealing with a very different Barbagallo Wanneroo Raceway this weekend, with the venue's maiden SuperNight event following summer resurfacing work.

In opening practice on Thursday evening, all 25 drivers lapped under the existing lap record, which was ultimately lowered by just over one second.

Milwaukee Racing's Davison believes the extra grip levels will catch drivers out on Friday and Saturday evenings.

"The first comment I said was the brakes are fine, but they're not up to the level of grip that we're using," Davison said.

"The braking zones are very short here, and the biggest challenge is you can't brake any further into the corner, but the car can cop the grip in the middle of the corner, so it's about getting the car stable, braking smoothly.

"But as soon as you brake harder it still locks wheels and gets unstable.

"The grip's so high in the middle of the corner, you're trying to get from the brake to the mid-corner, which is a real challenge and massive brake pressures.

"It's nuts, there's going to be some big offs in the race. If you leave the track, you're going to leave it at a pretty great rate."

Davison set the third-fastest time on Thursday evening, behind Jamie Whincup and Tickford team-mate Chaz Mostert.

Asked if he had concerns about the prospect of incidents in the race, Davison said: "Not concerns.

"But we even saw with a similar extent at Tailem Bend (a new circuit in 2018), the corner speeds are high, you're committing to the corners much higher than most circuits, so if you lock a wheel or you do overshoot it, you go off much quicker.

"There's less room for error, we're braking very deep at Turn 1, down at the bowl, the last corner.

"And if everything's right, the balance of the car, your braking technique is smooth, you can carry massive speed.

"But it doesn't take much to nip a wheel or get unstable into the corner. If the wheel does grab or you do lose the car, you'll see a lot of people flying off.

"In the race, the intensity level will be very high and it doesn't take much to make a mistake, with the lack of vision, the dust, a few cars came out of the gravel trap and it was very difficult to see where the car was, where you're going.

"There's a lot of interesting factors that'll come in this weekend, and I think after 50-odd qualifiers at that sort of level, you'll see I think some mistakes."