More mistakes, bigger crashes: How new cars turbocharge Townsville 500
The adoption of the two-door Gen 3 Camaros and Mustangs has flipped the script on how drivers plan to tackle the Reid Park circuit, with competitors expecting fireworks on the track
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The move to the next generation of Supercars could lead to the most exciting Townsville 500 in years as the steep learning curve creates a minefield for drivers.
The adoption of the two-door Gen 3 Mustangs and Camaros has flipped the script on how drivers plan to tackle the Reid Park circuit.
While the old four-door sedans maximised downforce to ensure stability through corners, Supercars drivers Andre Heimgartner and James Golding said the Gen 3 cars had gone the opposite way.
The change has introduced unpredictability to the finishing order like never before, opening the door for new challengers to push Townsville’s unofficial king Shane van Gisbergen.
“At the moment it is so hard to be consistent,” Brad Jones Racing team’s Heimgartner said.
“These new cars are so challenging, compared to our old cars, where you can be really fast in one race and then very slow in the next.
“This track will be interesting because there are some quite high-speed areas. The cars now have a lot less downforce. A Formula 1 car has heaps of downforce, that’s how it zips around the corner, and we have almost the complete opposite in these new cars, they’ll move around a lot. There will be mistakes everywhere so in the race, when someone is right up your bum it will be easier to make a mistake.”
PremiAir driver Golding said that difference in handling had led to more overtaking in previous events.
Golding had no expectation that would change on the Reid Park street circuit already known to punish mistakes.
“The racing is definitely going to be good this year with the new car,” he said.
“It’s a bit different to handle, obviously less downforce, a bit less grip at higher speed, but this track specifically I think the racing is going to be even better then what it used to be.
“As we’ve seen previously (in 2023), there’s been some awesome races in multiple conditions. (Townsville) being a longer race, with tyre strategy and fuelling back involved as well, I think it’s going to be a lot of unknown and who is going to come out on top.”
Townsville will be the 16th race on the Supercars circuit this year but Golding said racers and engineers alike were all still grappling with how best to tune and handle the new rides.
“Everyone’s got a bit of a handle on the cars now (but) it’s still not quite as easy to nail it every time,” he warned.
“The window or margin of error in the set-up is pretty narrow to get it 100 per cent right. That’s why you’re seeing the order of the field jumbled up a lot.
“We’re getting new winners we haven’t had for a fair while and that’s what is making it exciting as well. A lot of the smaller teams are punching above their weight and have got more equal opportunities.
“Racing-wise, we’ve got the potential for ones of the best Townsville events in years, for sure. The other events we’ve already done in Townsville provides a lot of great passing opportunities with tyre degradation. It’s certainly going to be one to watch.”
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Originally published as More mistakes, bigger crashes: How new cars turbocharge Townsville 500
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