2021 Supercars Townsville SuperSprint session times and preview

The series will hit the Reid Park circuit for a second-straight weekend as it looks to shore up a 12-round schedule amid COVID-19 outbreaks up and down the east coast of Australia.

Both Sydney and Melbourne, the country's two biggest cities, are currently in lockdown, the ensuing uncertainty over state borders making the decision to run two rounds in Townsville particularly important.

There are significant changes to the format, though, with a move from the refuelling, two-stop 250-kilometre races back to the three-heat sprint races.

Each of three races will be 110 kilometres long and feature a single mandatory stop for at least two tyres.

The grid for Saturday's opener will be determined by a three-part qualifying session culminating in a Top 10 Shootout.

On Sunday the two grids will come from two back-to-back 10-minute regular qualifying sessions.

The Dunlop soft tyre will be in play, each driver having five sets to get through all competitive sessions (qualifying and races).

The big question heading into the weekend is if anybody can catch Triple Eight.

The two Red Bull Holdens were in a league of their own last weekend, Shane van Gisbergen running down Jamie Whincup in both races to take his ninth and 10th wins of the season.

On both days Anton De Pasquale was best of the rest, but was more than 20 seconds down the road as the Bulls ran rampant.

Van Gisbergen holds a formidable series lead heading into Townsville 2.0, his gap back to Whincup now 245 points.

Nobody else is within a round's worth of points, Will Davison's deficit 370 in third while Chaz Mostert and Cam Waters are 383 and 405 points behind.

There is a maximum of 315 points on offer across the weekend.

2021 Supercars Townsville SuperSprint session times

All times local (GMT +10)

Saturday July 17

10:00-10:30 Townsville Tin Tops – Practice 1
10:40-11:20 Super2/Super3 – Practice 1
11:35-12:20 Supercars – Practice 1
12:35-12:55 Townsville Tin Tops – Qualifying
13:05-13:15 Super3 – Qualifying
13:20-13:30 Super2 – Qualifying
13:45-13:55 Supercars – Qualifying Part 1
14:00-14:10 Supercars – Qualifying Part 2
14:20-14:45 Supercars – Top 10 Shootout
15:00-15:20 Townsville Tin Tops – Race 1
15:30-16:00 Super2/Super3 – Race 1
16:45-17:48 Supercars – Race 1

Sunday July 18

09:35-09:55 Townsville Tin Tops – Race 2
10:25-10:35 Supercars – Qualifying (Race 2)
10:45-10:55 Supercars – Qualifying (Race 3)
11:15-11:25 Super3 – Qualifying
11:30-11:40 Super2 – Qualifying
11:55-12:15 Townsville Tin Tops – Race 3
12:45-13:48 Supercars – Race 2
14:20-14:50 Super2/Super3 – Race 2
15:40-16:43 Supercars – Race 3