The supplies needed to fuel Great Race

More than 45,000 litres of BP Ultimate’s E85 blend required to fuel 25 Supercars across the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 has headed to the Mountain.

RaceFuels, the control fuel distributor to the Supercars Championship, begin sending their supplies from Melbourne on the weekend.

Every lap around the revered Mount Panorama circuit required approximates 5.5L, with each car expected to need at least 1800L of the blend – made up of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent BP Ultimate unleaded petrol – across the four days.

There are also three support categories lining up at the event, which means that RaceFuels will store 70,000 litres of fuel at the track.

“For RaceFuels, working with BP to supply the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 is the ultimate challenge to provide both quality and quantity,” said RaceFuels director Mark Tierney.

“Race Fuels services over 40 events a year, but there’s only one Bathurst 1000. It’s the one event that everyone talks about. We think about this all year and we plan 12 months in advance to manage the volumes of fuel that is required.

“It has been a challenging season with COVID-19, and the Bathurst 1000 presents its own list of challenges, being a regional NSW event while we are Melbourne base.

“We have a COVID Safe plan, we have a freight and a staff management operation that is compliant, and we’re very keen to get to the circuit.

“We’ve packed up 70,000 litres of E85 racing fuel; 28,000 litres of that is in bulk, with the rest in 200 litre drums that will be hand delivered to the teams.”

When it comes to the rubber beneath the Supercars, Dunlop will be providing 1436 hard compound tyres, with more than 500 wet tyres also available.

Tyres will have to handle the heaviest vertical load of the season at Bathurst, with 1600kg vertical load at the Grate at the top of the Mountain.

Meanwhile on the suspension front, Pedders Damper By SupaShock come to the fore – Pedders Suspension & Brakes having formed a technical partnership with SupaShock.

The Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 gets underway this Thursday, the 161-lap main event occurring on Sunday.