Tyre deg in the spotlight for Sydney return

Tyre life will again be the talking point when Supercars returns to Sydney, says Cameron Waters.

This weekend’s Bunnings Trade Sydney SuperNight will be the first event back since July’s Townsville doubleheader.

The first of four Sydney Motorsport Park events will feature a trio of sprint races, each with a compulsory stop for tyres.

The sweeping SMSP layout is known to severely test tyre life.

With five sets of the Dunlop Soft Tyre available from Saturday qualifying, strategy will be key - just like it was in 2020 at SMSP.

“We’re expecting deg to be the same, but it’ll be a tricky weekend,” Tickford Racing driver Waters told Supercars.com.

“It’ll be the talking point of the weekend; when you use your tyres and why.

“You’ve got to maximise the races where you don’t have enough tyres relative to others.

“It’ll be a challenge, as it was last year, but I’m looking forward to it.”

How teams use tyres across the weekend will prove crucial. Critically, the first race will be a night affair on Saturday.

Some teams managed to spread their tyres across the three races, some sacrificing one race.

Other teams went all in on one race, and would pay dividends.

Darwin and Townsville didn’t test tyres as much as SMSP will, with The Bend Motorsport Park - where Waters won his first of three races in 2021 - a similar layout to the Sydney venue.

However, Waters cited SMSP’s ability to chew up tyres to more accurately gauge if he and his team have made any gains on his 2020 Sydney performances.

'It’ll be a challenge, as it was last year'

“SMSP is a similar track on paper to The Bend, but the track surfaces are so different,” he said.

“There isn’t much deg at The Bend. At SMSP, the track surface is abrasive and it punishes a poorly-balanced car.

“Our car obviously worked well at Tailem Bend but we can’t rock up to SMSP with the same set-up, roll it out and expect to be fast.

“We’re really getting to understand our car better and what makes it work.

“It’ll be a really good test for us to carry on what we learned in Townsville.”

The 2021 Repco Supercars Championship will continue at this weekend’s Bunnings Trade Sydney SuperNight. Tickets for all four upcoming Sydney events are on sale now.

All sessions will be broadcast live on Fox Sports and streamed via Kayo. The Seven Network will broadcast live from 3:30pm AEDT on Saturday and 12:30pm AEDT on Sunday.