Supercars: Latest news, results from Melbourne SuperSprint

The team which became a “crash test dummy” for the newest generation of Supercars has quashed one of the major fears about the sport’s new era.

Tickford Racing boss Tim Edwards says the ‘repair-ability’ of the new Gen3 Supercars is not as bad as some may have feared despite James Courtney being ruled out of Race 2 in Newcastle.

His reassurance comes after fears a four-race weekend in Melbourne could make or break seasons if a car sustained significant damage early in the schedule, with so much still unknown about the durability of the new Gen3 machines.

Courtney’s Snowy Rivers Mustang was scratched from the Sunday race in Newcastle after a shootout shunt caused front-end damage that Tickford was unable to repair in time for the afternoon’s agenda.

Teams milled around the garage to watch Tickford’s best and brightest dissect the damage but the repair blitz failed when a new front clip would not fit to the chassis.

“Well unfortunately someone needs to be the crash test dummy and we got that mantle,” Edwards said.

“It’s no different to when we started racing Car of the Future back in 2013 – until you start racing and bouncing off each other and off of walls, you don’t know how they will fair.

“You can’t simulate crashing into each other and hitting walls. You have to do that at the race events and we learned a lot with how these cars crash (through Courtney’s car) and so did Supercars.

“They have the front clip off JC’s car with them up in Queensland so they can analyse it and think about ways we can do things differently.”

James Courtney's damaged Tickford Racing Ford Mustang at the Supercars season opener at Newcastle. Photo: Supplied / Mark Horsburgh

Edwards said it was up to Supercars to decide whether changes to the chassis design are required to strengthen the Gen3 cars and minimise damage in a similar scenario.

He believes teams will be better placed to combat such a circumstance in Melbourne this week, given the meeting is scheduled over four race days with more time in-between to diagnose any problems.

“The fact (the Melbourne SuperSprint) is spread out over four days probably gives us greater opportunity – had JC’s accident happened on Saturday, there’s half a chance we got it back out on track for Sunday,” Edwards said.

“The fact that largely – apart from us crashing – (the Gen3 cars) ran relatively flawlessly does bode well for the future. There’s certain things we can learn and Supercars and other teams are all keen to learn as well.”

With Triple Eight’s Race 1 disqualification upheld last week, a gilt-edged opportunity has been laid at the feet of would-be title rivals – like Tickford – to put pressure on Red Bull and its reigning champion, Shane van Gisbergen.

James Courtney during the Supercars official testing day at Sydney Motor Sport Park. Photo: Mark Horsburgh

Cam Waters sits third in the drivers’ standings, 57 points behind early leader Chaz Mostert. Van Gisbergen, who won Race 2, sits in 11th overall – 126 points off Mostert’s pace.

Tyre degradation was a hot topic out of Newcastle and the microscope will be on once again with the swap to super soft tyres in Melbourne this weekend.

At last year’s Melbourne SuperSprint many teams’ race plans were blown up by surprise tyre blistering, which forced some drivers to pit twice in the opening 20-lap race.

Edwards said tyre management would again be a key focus of teams this time out.

“There were certainly some challenges with tyres at the AGP last year and we’ve been pretty bold in going from a soft to super soft this year,” he said.

“It’s still an element of risk with that so I think that’s something in the back of our minds that we make sure we don’t get caught out like we did last year.

“It’s a different challenge for us but I think everyone is looking forward to seeing how the week goes. One of the key attributes of Gen3 was hopefully these cars can follow better than their predecessors – this is probably more a track that will showcase that than Newcastle.”