Tyre bundles have returned to the Surfers Paradise street circuit’s famous chicanes this season under V8 Supercars’ latest attempt to police kerb-hopping at the Castrol Edge Gold Coast 600.
The bundles have been absent from the chicanes in recent years as the category relied on large inner kerbs and the at times controversial electronic sensors.
While both remain this year, the second-stage inner kerbs that were previously 90 degrees to the road have been removed and replaced by tyres in the final parts of the beachside chicane.
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A tyre bundle has also been placed at the apex of Turn 1, while Turn 2, which features a kerb sensor, is without a bundle.
The changes have been made after the inner kerbs were blamed for significant amounts of suspension and wheel rim damage.
Nearest to the apex, the new tyre bundles are just a single tyre width high, with a second, larger stack placed further inboard.
Teams and drivers had their first look at the revisions during today’s track walks ahead of Friday’s opening practice sessions.
“It doesn’t look like a bad solution, but it’ll take the first couple of practice sessions to see how it really plays out,” Ford Performance Racing engineer Grant McPherson told Speedcafe.com.
“We’ll all be testing how aggressive you can be with the tyre bundles and their relation to the timing loops. That’s the unknown until we get on track.
“It’ll obviously be an important thing to get on top of in practice because there’s so much speed to be had by attacking the chicanes around here.”
Drivers triggering the kerb sensors in practice or qualifying will have their relevant lap time taken away, with four strikes in a session triggering a 60 second stop-go.
The races will also see a penalty issued on the fourth strike.
Practice 1 is set to get underway at 0935 local time.