Round 5 BP Eseries: What you need to know
THE FORM GUIDE
Scott McLaughlin still leads the BP Supercars All Stars Eseries, holding an 83-point lead over fellow Mustang driver Cam Waters, who made up nine points with his ARMOR ALL Driver of the Round performance last week.
Shane van Gisbergen’s Red Bull Holden has won four of the last six races and he is arguably the most in-form driver on the grid right now. He is third behind the Mustangs of McLaughlin and Waters on the Coates Hire Leaderboard.
THE WILDCARDS
It’s hard not to put Lando Norris in the form guides section given his uncanny ability to win basically any online race he enters.
The McLaren F1 star is the main attraction tonight and his battle with McLaughlin, van Gisbergen and De Pasquale will be great to watch.
The Englishman’s last online race ended in huge controversy as Indycar driver Simon Pagenaud collided with a fast finishing Norris late in the race. It caused plenty of social media banter from the F1 driver who won’t take a backward step in coming forward on the Spa circuit tonight.
McLaughlin won that Indy race, so it will be fun for fans to see the pair go head-to-head in a Supercar with Norris driving a Walkinshaw Andretti United Commodore tonight.
There are four other wildcards tonight, including Jack Doohan, the Red Bull Junior open-wheel star and son of Moto GP legend Mick Doohan.
The 17-year old will be out for bragging rights against Supercars rookie Zane Goddard, who got Doohan into kart racing as a kid.
Dunlop Super2 rookies Broc Feeney and Jayden Ojeda join the grid hoping to show up Supercars Championship drivers.
The final wildcard announced was Supercars 2010 champion, James Courtney.
Courtney walked out on Team Sydney after just one round but has made it very clear he still wants to compete at the top level and tonight’s race is the first step.
He won’t be among the favourites, as he has limited iRacing experience but is a tough competitor so anything could happen when he goes door-to-door with some familiar competition.
THE FORM SEEKERS
Anton De Pasquale continues to be the qualifying king with five ARMOR ALL Pole Positions to his name from the opening 14 races, but race results haven’t gone his way.
He moved up from eighth to sixth position on the Coates Hire Leaderboard last week and needs to keep winning to be within striking distance of McLaughlin and co for the final rounds.
Andre Heimgartner in the NED Ford Mustang sits fourth on the Coates Hire Leaderboard, with consistent results near the podium keeping him within striking distance of the top three.
His best result has been a fourth placing with two fifths and two sixth place finishes as well.
A win this week will help put pressure on the top three. Incredibly, he is yet to finish on the podium.
THE ROUGHIES
WAU’s Chaz Mostert broke through for his first win of the BP Eseries last week and may find another hair colour tonight for good luck after adopting a “Tiger King” style last week.
Teammate Bryce Fullwood has been a steady achiever and sits eighth on points with one podium result. He could benefit from the advice of this week’s wildcard teammate Norris.
Others to watch out for include Matt Stone Racing’s Garry Jacobson who has been a solid performer every week.
Jamie Whincup broke through for his first win of the Eseries in the reverse grid race at Watkins Glen last week but his style of racing may love the Spa track, so will be interesting to see if the seven-time Supercars champion continues to improve.
THE CIRCUIT
Supercars have never raced at Spa, Belgium. A number of the drivers, most notably Norris, have raced there in some form though and know what to expect from its high-speed straights and technical corners.
Spa-Francorchamps is 7.004km long with 19 turns.
The longest full throttle section of the circuit is over 2km long, with a top speed of 320km/h.
THE FORMATS
Qualifying – Sets Grid for positions 11-30
Top TEN Shootout
Race 15 – 8 laps – 1 stop (tyres) – Grid set from Qualifying
Race 16 – 8 laps – 1 stop (tyres) Reverse grid from Race 8
Race 17 – 14 laps – 2 stops (fuel and tyres) - Grid set from accrued points from Race 15 and 16
WHERE TO WATCH
Qualifying for the fourth round will begin tonight at 6pm AEST and will be broadcast exclusively on Fox Sports 506 before racing begins at 7pm.
From 7pm, racing will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 506, Kayo, Sky Sports (NZ) and 10 Play.
Online fans from around the globe can watch races via the Supercars’ Facebook Page, Supercars’ Teams Facebook Pages, Twitch and YouTube.
10 Bold will show a full replay of Round 5 on Saturday afternoon from 1-3pm.
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