The beginner's guide to Supercars race weekends

If you’re new to Supercars, you may have a few questions about the world’s best touring car championship. We’ve got you covered in our beginner’s guide!

The Repco Supercars Championship features a wide range of formats throughout the course of the season, creating a unique challenge for drivers and teams alike.

The three stages of the season, the Repco Sprint Cup, the Enduro Cup, and The Finals, all requiring different strengths and strategies to enhance performance.

Sydney 500, Townsville 500

The first format used for this season is a unique format that will only be used twice this season.

Both the Sydney 500 and the popular street circuit event at the Townsville 500 feature three races, adding up to a total of 500km.

Both events feature short, sharp Friday sprint races of 100km with mandatory tyre stops, before Saturday and Sunday each have a 200km race with mandatory refuelling and tyre stops, all on the Soft tyre.

Refuelling also looks different in 2025 at sprint events, with fuel churns being introduced, which places pressure on teams to make faultless tyre changes.

Melbourne SuperSprint

The logistical challenges of limited track time on the Formula One support bill at Albert Park means that the Melbourne SuperSprint features a bespoke race format.

There is one race on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, whilst the low amount of tyre degradation experienced on the mandated Soft tyre at Albert Park means that there are no pit stops in any of the four races.

The Thursday, Friday, and Saturday races will all be run over 105km, whilst the race that is a precursor to the Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix on Saturday is run over a distance of just 80km.

Super 440

A new race format for 2025, the Super 440 format makes up the rest of the Repco Sprint Cup in New Zealand, Tasmania, Perth, Darwin, and Ipswich.

Two 120km sprint races will be held on Saturday at each of these events, featuring one mandatory tyre change, before a 200km refuelling (also done with a fuel churn) race on Sunday, much like Sydney and Townsville.

The Saturday races have an extra complexity thrown into the mix, as there will be one race completed on the Soft tyre, and another completed on the Super Soft tyre.

Back-to-back qualifying session for each race will also be held on Saturday, with each session being held on the corresponding race tyre, meaning teams will have to be on the ball with any set-up changes.

Enduro Cup

The two races that make up the Enduro Cup at The Bend and Bathurst are perhaps the two simplest weekend formats of the season.

There are extra practice sessions at both events given that these are the only two race weekends where the 24 full-time drivers in the championship are joined by co-drivers, whilst there are also part-time wildcard entries thrown into the mix.

There is just one race at each event, a 500km race at The Bend, and the famous 1000km classic at Bathurst.

Fuel churns are replaced by traditional refuelling towers from The Bend Enduro right the way through to the final event of the year in Adelaide.

Unique qualifying formats are used at the enduros as well, with an all-in qualifying session followed by a Top 10 Shootout for the 10 fastest entries from the previous session.

The Finals

The opening two events of The Finals at the Gold Coast and Sandown sees the return of single-driver 500km race weekends, but feature a different format compared to Sydney and Townsville.

The 500km is broken up into two 250km races on Saturday and Sunday, featuring two compulsory pit stops for tyres and fuel.

Adelaide Grand Final

The Adelaide 500 became renowned as one of the most brutal events in Supercars, however the event is set to go to a whole new level in 2025 as it becomes the Adelaide Grand Final.

Whilst the punishing 250km races on Saturday and Sunday remain, the introduction of a 100km Friday afternoon sprint race makes it the longest single-driver event on the calendar at a whopping 600km.

With four drivers set to battle it out for the championship, and another 20 drivers looking to rain on their parade and secure their own championship positions outside the top four, it will truly be the best of the best who rise to the top.

Qualifying formats

There are also three different qualifying formats that will be used through the course of 2025.

Format 1

One-part qualifying, every car takes to the track at the same time, fastest car gets pole position. The single qualifying session will be followed by a Top 10 Shootout at the Enduro Cup events.

Format 2

Two-part qualifying, new for 2025 and will be used extensively through the Sprint Cup. All cars will take to the circuit for ten minutes, after which the top 10 cars will progress to a final session which is slightly shorter than the first session.

Format 3

Three-part qualifying, similar to F1 qualifying where cars are progressively eliminated until 10 cars remain for the final part of qualifying. Unlike F1, Q3 is replaced by a Top 10 Shootout, where cars roll out onto the track one at a time, and get one flying lap to go for pole.

Supercars is watched all around the world. If you’re planning on going to a race, see our website for tickets. Aussie fans can watch and stream on Foxtel, Kayo and Seven, while New Zealand fans can watch on Sky Sport. Alongside this, Superview gives international fans live coverage of every session.