Canberra 400 - The Race Meeting

The Race Meeting

The Canberra 400 was run over 3 days, from Friday to Sunday. Friday started out with two 45mins practice sessions for the V8 Supercars to be able to create a set-up that suited both the cars and the track. Later, the cars took to the track for Qualifying, which consisted of two sessions, the lower 50% and the upper 50%. Drivers were split into two groups which were determined by times from both practice sessions earlier in the day. The upper 50% went out first for 20mins to set the best time they could. After a 5min break, the lower 50% also went out for 20mins to set times. The best times from both sessions were added together. The top 15 would go into the Top 15 Shootout, while 16th place onwards would start Race 1 in those positions.

Saturday saw the Top 15 Shootout in which the top 15 cars from Qualifying would do one 'Hot lap' of the circuit. The 15th placed car would go out first, with the 1st placed car going out last. The top 15 places on the grid for Race 1 are determined by the lap times from the hot laps. Later in the day, cars would grid up for the 25 lap (100 km) Race 1. During this race the cars must make a tyre stop which means that all cars must enter the pits between laps 2 and 20 and stop in their pit bay. During this stop the pit crew must take off all 4 tyres and either replace them for new ones, or place the old ones flat on the ground and then put them back on the car. Racing cars are at their best with hot sticky tyres. Most teams, because of the cold that Canberra experiences during June, placed the old tyres back on the car, because the tyres would have already been warm from the previous laps that had just run, rather than put cold, new tyre onto the car.

Pitstops during the races in Canberra were usually somewhat of a procession, in that most if not all cars came in at the same time, usually on lap 3. This would result in a crowded pitlane where the possibility of an accident occurring was very high. The cause of most cars coming in so early was the safety car. During these races if the safety car was brought onto the track, the pitlane would close. This meant that cars would not be able to enter to make a pitstop. Drivers were worried that a safety car would appear sometime during the race and if they hadn't made a pitstop yet, they would drop to the back of the drivers who had made a pitstop. CAMS and AVESCO realised that this could cause an accident, so for the 2001 race, they changed the pitlane speed limit from 60 km/h to 40 km/h and introduced an electronic speed limiter to all cars.

Sunday morning saw the 25 lap (100 km) Race 2 and the first 'Reverse Grid' ever to be used in V8 Supercar racing. A reverse grid means the car that finished in 1st place in Race 1 would start last in Race 2 and the car that finished last in Race 1 would start 1st in Race 2. Those cars that DNF or did not finish start from the rear of grid. The introduction of the reverse grid was to create overtaking from faster cars at the back to slower cars at the front, which would be entertaining to the viewers. The problem with a reverse grid, especially on a street circuit is the high possibility of cars getting damaged from fast cars trying to overtake slow cars. Race 2 saw the same tyre stop rules that were applied in Race 1.

Race 3 was a 50 lap (200 km) and started late on Sunday afternoon. The grid for Race 3 was decided by adding the points awarded in Race 1 with the points awarded in Race 2. Race 3 not only had a tyre stop between laps 2 and 40, but also a fuel stop. This meant that all cars had to enter and stop in pitlane and have their cars filled up with petrol also between laps 2 and 40. The driver to have the most amount of points at the end of the weekend is the winner of the Canberra 400.