Before Penrite Racing's David Reynolds and Anton de Pasquale roll onto Watt Street on Friday, hours upon hours of work has been poured into the two drivers having a successful weekend.

Reynolds labels "the people in the pit" the "most important part of a race team". He says they do "90 per cent of the work".

"We all band together to improve the speed of the car, because [that] is what wins us the race. Every person in the team has a hand in that; week to week, race to race," he says.

"The driver has a very small part to do with the actual result, I believe, more of it is down to the car and team's performance."

Two weeks ago, after the Sandown 500, Penrite Racing immediately began preparing for Newcastle.

The team's CEO, Barry Ryan, says it's far from a case of simply pulling out last year's playbook and going again.

"We get everything stripped down and checked, make sure everything's cleaned and make sure there's not going to be any issues on the street track," he says.

"But the car's one part, we also make sure we note any differences in the track, which there are a few in Newcastle this year.

"We finished really strongly last year, we won the last race, but this year there's three places on the track that have been resurfaced, the hairpin's slightly different.

"So we try and understand what that might do to the car. The technical package is different to last year as well because there's been some changes in the rules."

Ryan, who is also part-owner of de Pasquale's car, says a race weekend can be won or lost in the weeks and days beforehand.

"Everything's prepared in the workshop," he says.

"If you don't prepare well in the workshop, you're not going to go well on the weekend. It's got to happen back there."

Equally, for the drivers, individual preparation can be crucial to their success.

Reynolds prefers to watch "a lot of video" to prepare for a round, while de Pasquale spends time in a simulator.

"The sim is basically a big computer game," he explains.

"It's the same sort of position you sit in the car, big screens and then depending where you are [racing] you try and get identical tracks. It's more for driving, not so much car set up.

"You can drive the circuits and then when you do get there you go, 'I was only here two days ago'."

Part of the build up for each team is event promotion.

The Penrite Racing drivers, like most others, arrived Wednesday morning.

They have about 48 hours in town before the event starts, but a packed diary leaves no time to check out the sights - not even a dip at the beach.

"It's flat chat," Reynolds says.

"Up at five o'clock [on Wednesday] and we didn't go to bed last night until 10.30pm.

"I was up at 6.30am this morning for the breakfast and our last appearance is at 8.30pm tonight."

Reynolds' schedule has included a school visit, trip back to the airport for a photo shoot, multiple television appearances and a charity breakfast. There's also a stack of private sponsor engagements.

The 34-year-old admits the non-stop schedule can become taxing. "We do too much," he says.

The team's 16 travelling staff stay in a variety of accommodation. They usually meet for a least one team dinner outside meals at the track - dining at Lone Star in Kotara on Wednesday night.

The nature of motor racing separates driver and team, making for isolated experiences. Drivers ride the moments behind the wheel, while a team feels the highs and lows in front a plethora of monitors.

"You put a really good lap in and the garage lights up," Reynolds says. "We don't see that until we watch the replay at home.

"It would be cool to be able to be in the garage and feel the emotion of everyone lining up together and celebrating."

The drivers and team feed off each other, in terms of enthusiasm and confidence, Reynolds says.

"If we walk in and our team: they don't feel confident, they're run down or under pressure, you feel that pressure too," he says.

"Regardless of how the team's performing, you've got to remain positive. Attitude's a huge part of it.

"It's more a team sport than any other sport I can think of.

"They do 90 per cent of the work. We do the last 10 per cent, I suppose, but the last 10 per cent is vital."