Newcastle 500 Preview
22 Nov, 2018
The 2018 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship concludes this weekend with the Coates Hire Newcastle 500 finale. Last year marked Newcastle’s debut event on the Supercars calendar; with the coastal city attracting over 190,000 people to the street circuit, and a further 1.5+ million tuning in to watch from home.
With the championship still to be decided, Supercar drivers will be putting everything on the line this weekend to secure the best finishing spot they can. For Tim, this will be his final round as a full-time Supercar driver so he is looking to have a strong finish behind the wheel of the Team CoolDrive Commodore.
All sessions will be LIVE on FOX Sports across the weekend, plus coverage on Channel Ten/One HD. Check your local guides for times.
TRACK TIMES
Friday 23rd November
11:40 - 12:20 – Practice One
15:15 – 15:55 – Practice Two
Saturday 24th November
11:35 – 11:55 - Qualifying
15:45 – 17:50 – Race 30 – 250kms / 95 Laps
Sunday 25th November
10:50 – 11:10 – Qualifying
12:50 – 13:15 – Top Ten Shootout
15:40 – 17:45 – Race 31 – 250kms / 95 Laps
FAST FACTS
Track Length – 2.63km
Direction – Anti-Clockwise
Fastest Speed – 226km/h
Average Speed – 133km/h
Fastest Corner – Turn 4 (150km/h)
Slowest Corner – Turn 11 (70km/h)
Qualifying Lap Record – 1:09.9065s, Scott McLaughlin, DJRTP, Ford Falcon FG/X, 2017
Race Lap Record – 1:10.6403s, David Reynolds, Erebus Motorsport, Holden VF Commodore, 2017
- Tim will make his last full-time championship start here this weekend. It will be his 84th championship round having been full-time in the series in 2013 with Dick Johnson Racing, 2015 with LD Motorsport and since 2016 with Team CoolDrive/Brad Jones Racing
- Qualifying in Newcastle was close! The pole winning margin to Scott McLaughlin and David Reynolds in the 2017 Saturday race was 0.0098s!
- Both of last year’s races featured the appearance of the safety car. We saw it three times on Saturday and twice on Sunday.
- Tim was a hard charger in both Newcastle races last year. He went from 24th to 12th on Saturday and 21st to 16th on Sunday.
MEET TIM –
Thursday 22nd November
17:00 – 18:00 - Newcastle SuperWelcome @ Gregson Park, Hamilton
Friday 23rd November
14:00 - 14:15 – Autograph Session @ Team CoolDrive Stand, Merchandise Alley
Saturday 24th November
9:30 – 10:00 – Autograph Session @ Main Oval opposite Super2 Garages
Sunday 25th November
9:20 - 9:50 – Autograph Session @ Main Oval opposite Super2 Garages
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