Supercars to evaluate new tyre compound

Supercars will evaluate a potential new tyre at an upcoming test day, in comparison tests alongside the three current Dunlop compounds.

Supercars currently runs three compounds of Dunlop control tyres — Hard, Soft and Super Soft, with the latter recently used at the betr Darwin Triple Crown.

A Dick Johnson Racing Ford and Matt Stone Racing Chevrolet will undertake category testing at Queensland Raceway on Wednesday June 26.

There, the two cars will complete running on all three current compounds, as well as a new development compound, which was designed following collaboration between Dunlop and Supercars.

The potential new compound will be compared to the current three compounds, across both makes of car.

“We've got obviously the three current tyres, Super Soft, Soft and Hard, and we have just received the development tyre from Dunlop,” Supercars General Manager of Motorsport Tim Edwards told Supercars.com.

“We will compare all four. We have put together an extensive test plan for the day, and we’ll evaluate this new tyre as a potential new compound for next year.

“Dunlop has sent some development tyres, based on some criteria that we've been discussing. We now need to evaluate it on track and see that it does what we hope it'll do.”

The new tyre will be tested over one lap speed and race runs, giving Supercars a chance to see how it creates speed, but also hangs on over a long run.

“We will evaluate what their one lap speed is, and then the critical thing for us will be how it behaves on a longer run, what the degradation is, and how robust it is,” Edwards explained.

“We know our current tyres. With this potential new tyre, it’s an opportunity to do an assessment, and a proper comparison between our three current compounds.

“After development, we’ll make assessments on if we have multiple compounds after that or just one compound.”

The 2024 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the NTI Townsville 500 on July 5-7. Tickets for the event are on sale now.