Engineer preview: Sydney Motorsport Park SuperSprint

DJR Team Penske has had a consistent run over the past few rounds banking top 10 finishes, and is expected to have a good showing at the upcoming PIRTEK Enduro Cup.

Last year the long distance races were strong for Scott Pye and co-driver Ash Walsh - and this time around Pye lines up with returning two-time champ Marcos Ambrose.

Ambrose will driver the Ford Falcon in the final co-driver only session tomorrow, and engineer for car #17 Mark Fenning believes the star driver is prepared.

"The SMP co-driver session is just another chance for Marcos to have a few laps in the race car. I don't see it as critically important - I have no doubts Marcos will perform strongly at the endurance events," Fenning told v8supercars.com.au.

Having been with DJR since 2012, Fenning ran Pye last year and now has experience with both drivers.

"Both Marcos and Scott are good to work with, they get on well together and with the engineering group," he said.

While last year's Sydney Motorsport Park event was difficult for the team, with Pye involved in a heavy accident caused by Mark Winterbottom, Fenning said the result did not affect the team's ability to push forward.

"The 2014 SMP accident was unfortunate, but had little effect on our performance at the enduros, the team did an excellent job repairing the car; and a strong fifth at Sandown was good reward for their efforts.

He says they will use all the information they can from the pre-season test day at the circuit in search for results this weekend.

"The SMP test information is certainly relevant; we have gone through it in detail and taken what we can from it."

Fenning talked through the ins and outs of Sydney Motorsport Park with v8supercars.com.au.

The circuit

The 3.905km circuit is complex, andteams need to be mindful of a number of characteristics when setting up the car.

"Sydney Motorsport Park has a challenging mix of corner types, it requires a good medium to high speed balance, while maintaining rotation and drive at turns two and eight," Fenning said.

The track has 11 turns but according to Fenning, only three are significant right hand corners.

"Due to the flowing nature the right front [tyre] wear is an important consideration to maximising soft tyre use in the Sunday race," he said.

This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the circuit, which was initially called Eastern Creek.

The cars

Fenning named tyre life as the biggest concern running a V8 Supercar at SMP. Given the challenging nature of the track, teams need to focus on the overall balance of the race car.

Finding a good setup compromise over the entire lap is the biggest challenge, Fenning says.

"Occasionally we see cars with front tyre inside edge failures," he explained.

"Although the track is relatively easy on brakes, it is important to have a car that trail brakes well to the apex without locking inside fronts," he said.

Practice

With an additional driver only session kicking off Friday, Ambrose will get behind the wheel before the two regular one-hour sessions that will allow the team to set up the Ford Falcon FG X.

"The SMP additional driver session is our final chance to give Marcos some seat time prior to the endurance events," Fenning said. DJR Team Penske has already utilised its one independent test day for 2015, so there is no opportunity to test before the enduros begin.

"With the 30-minute session Marcos is schedule for a total of nine flying laps over three outings. We have put aside the best of our remaining tyres for the endurance events ... we do lack quality tyres for Marcos to run on."

DJR Team Penske won't be testing new componentry in the Friday sessions, but focusing solely on fine-tuning the #17.

"Practice sessions times are heavily dependent on your pre-marked tyre quality, it is not until the green tyre run at the end of Friday practice that teams get a good read on where they stand."

Race format

While strategy is not a factor on Saturday during the two 60km races, teams are forced to use the hard Dunlop tyre in the first qualifying session and race, and the soft tyre in the second qualifying session and race.

"The challenge is to make sure you have good balance on each tyre type," Fenning said.

Championship points aside, a good run on Saturday is important for the teams to bank information about performance on the compounds.

"The Saturday races provide a great deal information that comes from driver feedback, logged data and timing analysis along with tyre condition and wear measurements," Fenning said.

"All this information is used by engineering group to determine the approach to the Sunday race."

Tyres and pit stops

Fenning predicts we won't see anything unusual during Sunday's 200km race, in terms of tyre strategy.

"As has been the recent trend, I expect most cars will run soft-hard-soft," Fenning said.

"SMP is relatively high for degradation [but] given 2015 trends, I expect cars will run more total laps on softs this year."

His noted points of interest - how many laps teams run on the hard tyres in the middle stint, and how early they stop to bolt on softs for the run home.

Lap 18 is the critical lap, with carsable to make it home on fuel from then on.

"[Teams] must make two stops to fit the 120L requirement - I expect all cars will take their first stop prior to lap 15," Fenning said.

He predicts everyone would complete a fuel stop if the Safety Car came out of the first lap, but "a late Safety Car will hurt those that put their softs on earlier and have more laps on them".

The Sydney Motorsport Park SuperSprint kicks off tomorrow, with coverage live on FOX SPORTS 506 and highlights on Ten and ONE.