IRC enduro format confirmed
Image: John Morris
This week, Sydney Motorsport Park will play host to the opening round of the Innovation Race Cars Endurance Series, as a part of the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series.
Innovation Race Cars (IRC) is a new category to the Super Series in 2025, a couple of months ago IRC contested its first sprint round at Winton Motor Raceway and proved to be a great launch.
The second event on the Super Series schedule, Sydney Sundown, will see IRC category go endurance racing for the very first time.
Across the two-day race meeting on Friday and Saturday (May 30-31), there will be two 25-minute sprint races and two 50-minute enduros, with the longer affairs featuring a compulsory pit stop.
As part of the enduro format competitors can elect to take on a co-driver and perform a driver change during the pit stop.
“Each car can can be shared by two drivers, it allows the regular drivers to keep the costs down by splitting the entry,” said IRC founder Danny Stutterd.
“We will have four races across the weekend with a qualifying session, a sprint race and an enduro on both Friday and Saturday.
“The qualifying sessions determine the grid positions for the sprint races, and the finishing positions of the sprint races gives the starting positions of the Enduro.
“If a car is being shared, each driver will qualify for their own sprint race, so Driver A will qualify and do the sprint on Friday, the other will do the same on Saturday.”
As is the case with a lot of endurance races around the globe; to keep things fair and as safe as possible, a minimum pit stop time will be implemented throughout each given weekend.
This is to limit the risk of rushing and causing potentially dangerous mistakes in the lane.
“What we're mandating is a compulsory pit stop time, that will be from the pit entry to pit exit, and we're allowing enough time to incorporate a driver change within that,” Stutterd explained.
“No fuel is required, but a driver and tyre change can be made, these can be performed without being rushed or making a mistake, not putting seat belts on for example. There'll be ample time for a driver change.”
There will also be a minimum driver time, a driver won’t able to do one lap and hand the keys over to the other person.
“The minimum driver time will be determined by the compulsory pit window, if that opens 20 minutes into the race, then that is what the minimum time will be,” he said.
Stutterd is very much looking forward to this event for a whole host of reasons, not only the enduro element.
“The amount of minutes driving for a two-day event is quite incredible, and being a two-day event, it's actually a benefit for cost savings, because you haven't got crew for an extra day,” Stutterd explained.
“Under lights is exciting, so different. I've been lucky enough to do compete overseas in 24-hour races, but Sydney under lights is special, Prime time TV, we're thrilled. I can't wait to compete in it.”
The Sydney Sundown will be shown live on SBS Viceland, Fox Sports and Kayo on Friday and Saturday from 17:00 to 21:00 AEST.
More action can be seen on the official Super Series YouTube channel, from 14:00-22:00 AEST on Friday, and from 13:00-2200 AEST on Saturday.
Tickets to the event can be bought here.
Follow the Super Series on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram for more event updates.
Innovation Race Cars are incredibly fast, Aussie built purpose-built racing car, find out more by clicking here.