Slade: Thursday practice good for drivers, great for fans

28 Feb 2019

South Australian driver Tim Slade believes the first ever Thursday Supercars session at the Superloop Adelaide 500 will make the tough opening weekend of the championship easier on drivers, and deliver a great outcome for fans.

That’s because drivers will have one less practice session on Friday, giving a better ‘load spread’ across the entire race weekend.

At an event that tests the driver’s mettle with likely in-car temperatures of 65 degrees, the opportunity to break up what has traditionally been an intense day of three practice sessions and qualifying on the Friday is good for the Supercars garages.

“I always love coming home back to Adelaide, especially this time of year, especially when the weather is good,” Slade said of his home race.

“It’s always an awesome event, it’s a great way to start it [the championship] off

“[Moving Practice 1 to Thursday] makes Friday less busy, not having all the practice sessions and then the qualifying all in the one day.

“It’s not any extra practice time, it’s just one of the sessions we have on Friday pushed back to the Thursday.

“Obviously it gives the fans a chance to see the cars a day earlier.”

Commencing at 5:30pm, the heat of the day should begin to ease for drivers too, giving a tiny respite on the body.

The Superloop Adelaide 500 delivers plenty of punch on drivers starting their very first race for the year.

Holden defector Mark Winterbottom told SuperloopADL500.com.au the event would feature over 1000 80kg brake applications and over six-thousand gear changes against 40kg of force each change.

And with car temperatures around 20 degrees above the outside ambient temperature, it puts the pressure on inside the cabin.

“I’m glad that it’s as late in the day as it is, obviously with the temperature, but it’s still pretty warm enough [at that time of day] anyway,” Slade said.

“It’s a pretty demanding event from every aspect. All the stuff outside of the car – there’s a big corporate presence, and then the on-track stuff is pretty demanding as well.”

The Superloop Adelaide 500 started on Thursday and continues over the opening March weekend with Race 1 on Saturday 2 March, and Race 2 on Sunday 3 March.