Teams undertake crucial fuel churn practice

Time at Wednesday’s Destination NSW Sydney Test Day has been dedicated to the new-for-2025 fuel churns, which will be in action this weekend.

As Supercars races into a new era with new formats, returning circuits and big changes, the category is also returning to an old-school refuelling method.

Fuel churns will be used at all Repco Sprint Cup rounds, beginning at this weekend’s Thrifty Sydney 500 - Opening Round.

The churns replace the fuel towers, which will return for the longer Enduro Cup and Finals races.

Refuelling in the 200km races to be done via the hand-held churns, which were used by teams following the morning session at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Fuel capacity for all rounds, bar The Bend 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000 in the Enduro Cup, is 133 litres for cars. The capacity drops to 118 litres for the enduros.

Each fuel churn will carry the number of the respective car, along with PIRTEK branding.

When asked about the change last year, Supercars General Manager of Motorsport Tim Edwards explained: “For the first 25 races, all of the 200 kay races throughout those, to set the fuel towers up is quite labour intensive.

“When you’re doing a 200km race, you only actually need anywhere between 15 and 35 litres of fuel, sometimes a little bit more than that.

“So setting a fuel tower up, which takes three people to man during the race, a huge amount of assembly and disassembly, it’s hugely labour intensive, just for a small amount of fuel.

“[Fuel churns] seems like a logical step and it changes the dynamic.”

Cars will return to the track at 2:00pm local time following the fuel churn practice session, for three on-track hours of running to conclude the Destination NSW Sydney Test Day.

After Wednesday's Destination NSW Sydney Test Day, Supercars will return to Sydney Motorsport Park for the opening race of what is set to be the most action-packed season in Supercars history.

Race 1 takes place on Friday night, with Race 2 on Saturday night and Race 3 on Sunday afternoon. Tickets for the February 21-23 event are on sale now.