Formats and tyres explained: 2025 Repco Supercars Championship

On-track action will expand in the 2025 Repco Supercars Championship, which will feature more racing kilometres, more Shootouts, and more practice.

The third season of the Camaro vs Mustang Gen3 era will take place over 34 races across 13 rounds in Australia and New Zealand.

Supercars.com breaks down what the on-track action will look like next year, from practice, qualifying, race lengths, tyre allocation, and the all-new Finals Series.

Season format

In 2025 the Repco Supercars Championship heads into a new era with the season set to be split into three distinct parts, culminating in a Finals Series to crown the 2025 champion.

The first eight rounds of the season will constitute the Sprint Cup, with a Sprint Cup winner to be crowned at the conclusion of the Ipswich Super440.

2025 will also see the return of the Enduro Cup, with The Bend 500 and the Repco Bathurst 1000 also set to represent a last chance for drivers to qualify for the Finals Series.

The final three rounds of the season at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500, Penrite Oil Sandown 500, and VAILO Adelaide Grand Final will see the top 10 drivers of the season battle it out for the championship.

Post-Bathurst, the top 10 drivers in the championship (plus the winners of the Sprint and Enduro Cups), will do battle until four are left to fight for the championship on the streets of Adelaide.

More information on how the Finals Series will work can be found here.

Race lengths

The 34 races will see drivers complete 6675km of racing, up 1200km from 2024. There will be two endurance races featuring drivers and co-drivers, with the showpiece Repco Bathurst 1000 following The Bend 500, a new addition to the calendar.

The season-opening Sydney 500 and NTI Townsville 500 feature three races, with a 100km sprint race on Friday to be followed by two 200km refuelling races on Saturday and Sunday.

The SuperSprint format with four sprint races with no pit stops remains at the Melbourne SuperSprint at Albert Park.

The Super400 and previous SuperSprint format are replaced by the new Super440 format at the ITM Taupo Super440, Tasmania Super440, Perth Super440, BETR Darwin Triple Crown, and Ipswich Super440, featuring two 120km sprint races on Saturday and a 200km refuelling race on Sunday.

The Saturday sprint races at these events will be split between the new Dunlop Soft tyre and Dunlop Super Soft tyre, adding to the challenge of these events.

The Penrite Oil Sandown 500 remains, but now becomes a single-driver event with two 250km races, with this format also remaining in place for the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.

The Grand Final in Adelaide gets revamped, with the two traditional 250km races joined by a Friday afternoon 100km sprint race at the VAILO Adelaide Grand Final.

Fastest lap points will also be on the line in every race bar the enduros.

Qualifying

There will be 16 Top Ten Shootouts in 2025, the same number of Shootouts as this season.

Next year there will be three qualifying formats used to set the grid for the 34 races.

Melbourne, The Bend, and Bathurst will use Format 1, where pole will be decided by a single qualifying session, though it will only be provisional at the enduros, where a Top Ten Shootout will follow.

Format 2 is a new two-part knockout qualifying format, where the top 10 drivers from the 10-minute Part 1 go through to an eight-minute all-in session in Part 2 to decide pole.

Format 2 will be used for the first race at Sydney, and the Saturday races at Taupo, Tasmania, Perth, Darwin, Townsville, Ipswich, and the first race in Adelaide.

At the Super440 events, Saturday qualifying session will also be split across the Soft and Super Soft tyre matching the corresponding race compound.

Format 3 is a slightly tweaked three-part knockout qualifying, which will see six cars knocked out in Part 1, eight cars in Part 2, and then a Top Ten Shootout making up Part 3.

Format 3 will be used at Races 2 and 3 in Sydney; on Sunday in Taupo, Tasmania, Perth, Darwin, Townsville, and Ipswich, at both races on the Gold Coast and at Sandown; and on Saturday and Sunday in Adelaide.

Practice

Outside of the enduros, all practice sessions in the 2025 Repco Supercars Championship will be held on Friday, save for a Thursday practice session in Adelaide.

Two 30-minute practice sessions will be the new standard for practice next year, save for the season opener in Sydney that will only have one 30-minute session.

As usual, the enduros will feature longer practice sessions, with some sessions dedicated additional driver only session.

Tyres

The 2025 season is the 24th for Dunlop as the control tyre supplier of Supercars. There will be two dry compounds of Dunlop's control SP Sport Maxx tyres in use (Soft and Super Soft) and the Wet Weather tyre.

The Soft and Super Soft tyres are brand-new constructions for 2025, with the previous Hard and Soft tyre no longer in use

Both compounds of tyres will be used on the Saturday of all Super440 events, with each race and corresponding qualifying session to be held on different compounds.

Both races on the Gold Coast and at Sandown will also be split between compounds, with Saturday running on the Super Soft, and Sunday on the Soft.

The Soft tyre will be the sole compound eligible for Sunday's 200km race at Taupo, Perth, Darwin, and Ipswich.

The Soft will also be used for all races at Sydney, Melbourne, Townsville, The Bend, Bathurst, and Adelaide.

The Super Soft tyre will be used for Sunday running at the Tasmania Super440.

The Dunlop Wet tyre remains the same construction as is being used this season.

Pit stops

Compulsory pit stop regulations are set to be made more uniform across the 2025 Repco Supercars Championship season.

At every race outside of the enduros, teams will be mandated to change a minimum of two tyres at each compulsory pit stop.

The shorter 100 or 120km sprint races will feature one compulsory pit stop, whilst the longer 200 or 250km races will feature two mandatory pit stops.

All four sprint races in Melbourne will be flag-to-flag sprint races with no compulsory pit stops, whilst the two enduros have no pit stop requirements, leaving teams free to dictate their own strategies.

2025 Repco Supercars Championship formats*

Key

Format 1: Single qualifying

Format 2: Two-part knockout qualifying

Format 3: Three-part knockout qualifying

TTSO: Top Ten Shootout

WU: Warm Up

^ Means a Session run under lights at dusk/night

* Subject to change, first published October 9 2024

2025 Repco Supercars Championship tyres and pit stops*

* Subject to change, first published October 9 2024