Advantage for Victorian teams in Sydney: Tander

Garth Tander believes Victorian-based teams could have an edge over their rivals when the 2021 season resumes, with Queensland-based teams preparing for a six-week stint on the road.

Like it did in 2020, Sydney Motorsport Park will be the venue for the season resumption after a three-month hiatus due to COVID restrictions.

The Eastern Creek circuit will host four successive weekends of racing from this weekend, before the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship concludes at Mount Panorama from November 30 to December 5.

This week, Queensland-based teams Triple Eight Race Engineering, Matt Stone Racing, and the Shell V-Power Racing Team will cross the border into New South Wales.

It will mark the start of six weeks on the road for the Queensland squads.

Last season, five Victorian-based Supercars teams scrambled to get across the Victoria/New South Wales border before it shut at midnight.

What followed was a 105-day stint on the road, making for a difficult time for team members, who were separated from their families.

Albeit under different circumstances this season, 2007 champion and commentator Tander believes Victorian teams’ experience provides them with an advantage.

“This is probably where the Melbourne-based teams have got a small edge over Queensland-based teams because they did all this last year,” Tander said.

“They [Melbourne teams] would have learned what they need to take what they need to have available to them.

“Then also the logistics about how to get things to and from where the race team will be based in Sydney and back to their base either in Melbourne or Queensland.

“Things that probably they'll need to take more of [like] bodywork.

“Front bumpers, rear bumper side skirts, probably bonnet, probably one or two more transaxles, they will take with them.

“The turnaround time to send the transaxle back to base get it rebuilt, and then back to the race team will be a little bit longer as well.

“Logistically, they'll be a lot of transport going backward and forwards from Sydney back to base.”

The Sydney swing will see the Supercars field complete 11 races over four events, with four races running under lights.

Sydney’s final event will also see the return of dual 250km races including fuel drops.

With teams unable to return cars to their workshops in between back-to-back events in Sydney, they will need to complete any repairs and maintenance from their pit lane garage.

Tander also believes despite Queensland teams having plenty of notice, they face the tough challenge of preparing their cars ahead of December’s Repco Bathurst 1000.

Sydney Motorsport Park hosted the season resumption in 2020

“You think about the Queensland teams, they're probably going to be on the road the entire time, right up to the Bathurst 1000,” Tander said

“They will have to have all their Bathurst stuff with them on the road, if unless they're going to freight stuff in especially for that race.

“When you prep a car for Bathurst, usually before the car leaves the workshop it's got brand new front suspension, brand new rear suspension, brand new driveline, brand new transaxle fully fresh engine, all in the car ready to go.

“The teams are now going to have to do that on the road.

“They are going have to do that either in the garage at Sydney Motorsport Park, or if they have another base in Sydney that they'll go to in the two-week period before we go racing at Mount Panorama, or they'll go straight to Bathurst and do it up there.

“It's certainly going to be different, but it's not unique.

Five Victorian teams completed a 105-day stint on the road in 2020

“These teams have done it before, the Victorian teams did it for Bathurst, so they definitely have a head start on this.

“I think it's a very interesting thing that would be fascinating to watch over the four weeks we spend in Sydney.

“[To see] how the teams set up their workshop away from home.

“But then also that two-week period, how do they prep for Bathurst? That'll be a fascinating thing to keep an eye on.”

The 2021 Repco Supercars Championship will continue at this weekend’s Bunnings Trade Sydney SuperNight. Tickets for all four upcoming Sydney events are on sale now.

All sessions will be broadcast live on Fox Sports and streamed via Kayo.

The Seven Network will broadcast live from 3:30pm AEDT on Saturday and 12:30pm AEDT on Sunday.