After a mad-cap dash to cross the NSW border, five Victorian-based Supercars teams are now settling in to life on the road.
Tickford Racing, Walkinshaw Andretti United (WAU), Kelly Racing, Team 18 and Erebus Motorsport all left COVID-hit Melbourne on Monday to get across the NSW border before it closed at midnight.
A fleet of transporter trucks and vehicles carried the teams, their cars and equipment north with all five outfits safely making it into NSW before the deadline.
The teams will now take their cars and gear to Sydney Motorsport Park, where they’ve been granted access to the venue’s garages, before moving into a range of accommodation for what could be weeks away from home.
Erebus chief executive Barry Ryan said his team had spent the night in Gundagai while driver David Reynolds headed to his parents’ home in Albury.
They would be moving into team owner Betty Klimenko’s farm in NSW’s Hunter Region.
“We’re going to probably camp there for a few nights, sounds like there’s plenty of room,” Ryan told AAP.
“We don’t want to be shut up in the hotel for more time than we have to so if we can stay somewhere like her farm at least we’ll have our own cooking facilities and be able to chill out for a little bit.”
As well as their vehicles and parts, most teams have travelled with essential staff to compete at a race track.
WAU team prinicipal Bruce Stewart said they would continue their regular COVID-19 testing procedures and were thankful for having access to Sydney Motorsport Park’s facilities to continue preparation for next weekend’s SuperSprint event at the facility.
Just how long the teams will be away from Victoria remains unclear.
“Everything in this environment is a moving feast, isn’t it? It’s very hard to pinpoint specific facts as much as we’d like them, and to plan around them,” Stewart told AAP.
“I would say that they will be at Sydney and there’s a high probability that they’ll go to Darwin as well.”
The Supercars has calendar has events in Sydney, Darwin and Townsville over the next month and a half before a scheduled event at Melbourne’s Sandown Raceway in September.
Whether the Sandown event proceeds is unclear but both Ryan and Stewart were optimistic.
“We’re planning for it and hoping and expecting that we will be at Sandown,” Stewart said.
