S5000 tweaks push-to-pass for Adelaide

The V8-powered category will close out its season on the streets of the South Australian capital as part of the Adelaide 5000 this weekend.

It has already been announced that, due to the FIA circuit licence, the cars will run at reduced horsepower for their Adelaide debut.

The category has now confirmed that the push-to-pass system, which debuted on the Gold Coast last month, has also been tweaked ahead of the weekend.

The system will effectively function the same as before, with throttle percentage reduced until activated, however the deployment is now different.

Instead of having a set number of deployments, drivers are now limited to 90 seconds of full throttle per race.

As was the case before the system is still deployed by a button and then deactivated by the brake pedal, while drivers can also manually deactivate the system to save time.

A flashing LED rain light on the back of each car will alert other drivers when the system is in use.

"The revisions to the push-to-pass system for Adelaide will introduce more strategy into the racing and we think will make for a better product," said Stefan Millard from S5000 technical partner Garry Rogers Motorsport.

"Much like how it is used in IndyCar racing, drivers can pick and choose how they utilise it rather than being stuck with a set number of deployments per race.

"They can turn it off when they have pushed the button, so if they see the car in front using it, they can save their time for later.

"Similarly, it allows the system to be used on shorter straights to set up a pass for later in the lap.

"At the Gold Coast we were aiming for approximately 0.4 to 0.5 seconds gain on the straight and Adelaide will be similar.

"We will continue to tune the system throughout the weekend."

Nathan Herne heads into the second Tasman Series round as the leader after clean-sweeping the Gold Coast.

There are 15 cars entered for Adelaide, including one for former Formula 1 star Giancarlo Fisichella.

Track action for the Adelaide 500 kicks off on Thursday.