Jacobson 'not afraid' of the unknown heading to Darwin

Team Sydney recruit Garry Jacobson believes the introduction of the Dunlop Super Soft tyre could be the advantage he needs to nab a career-best result at the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown.

Hidden Valley Raceway will now host the debut of the new Super Soft tyre, following the postponement of the Winton SuperSprint last month.

The super soft compound will have more grip and degrade faster than the soft compound tyre and suffer a sudden drop-off at the end of its life.

Aimed at spicing up the on-track action, the new tyre was tested by Will Davison and Jamie Whincup at Queensland Raceway late last year.

WATCH: JACOBSON ON HIS DARWIN HOPES

The new tyre is expected to add a new dimension to racing at low degradation circuits like Hidden Valley Raceway.

Although questions remain over how the tyre will perform under race conditions in hot temperatures, Jacobson is relishing the idea of a level playing field in terms of tyre strategy.

“I don’t feel like I have as much to lose, Jacobson told Supercars.com.

“That gives you a hint of what I think about the degradation, but I’m going to go for it and see if I can jag a result out of it.

“I’m sure there’s other drivers up and down pit lane that have championships to worry about but for me I want to jag a one-off result this weekend and be aggressive with my strategies.

“I’m not as afraid of the tyre degradation as some people are, but hey, I might get found out, I might look silly, but I don’t feel like I have anything to lose.”

The 2016 Dunlop Super2 Series champion previously netted a Supercars career-best seventh at Sydney Motorsport Park last season, and went on to finish 21st in the 2020 championship with Matt Stone Racing.

In his first season with the Sydney-based outfit, Jacobson scored a season-best finish at last month's OTR SuperSprint, climbing from 22nd to 14th in Race 10.

The Repco Supercars Championship field will return to the Northern Territory this weekend for the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown. Tickets are available here.

The event will be broadcast live on Foxtel and will be streamed on Kayo, and will be broadcast live and free on Seven.