Ipswich: It has been a difficult few weeks for Supercars' smallest teams, which suffered setbacks that have stretched their already strained resources to the limit.

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Erebus Motorsport, Team 18 and Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport are perennial strugglers that survive on low budgets and high hopes, relying on talented drivers to occasionally over-achieve.

They have all endured major upheavals that will make their participation in this weekend's Ipswich SuperSprint at Queensland Raceway even more challenging than normal.

Erebus has been forced to make a mid-season driver change that has cost the team significant funding of its second entry, while a failed sponsorship deal has left LDM's two cars bereft of major backing.

Team 18 is still recovering from the massive crash at the Darwin SuperSprint last month that sidelined driver Lee Holdsworth and totalled the squad's Holden Commodore.

Holdsworth suffered serious fractures to his pelvis, right knee and two ribs, putting him out of action until the Sandown 500 in September.

The single-car squad had to find not only a stand-in driver for the Townsville 400 two weeks ago and the Ipswich SuperSprint, but also a replacement car.

Team owner Charlie Schwerkolt drafted rookie Kurt Kostecki in a deal that included upgrading the 18-year-old West Australian's second-level Dunlop Series Commodore to use while a new car is built for Holdsworth's return.

With no top-level experience, Kostecki predictably struggled at the Townsville street track, running at the tail of the field before crashing in both races, but he should be more comfortable at the more forgiving 3.12km Queensland Raceway.

Holdsworth's car-wrecking accident was not only a big financial blow, but his absence interrupts the momentum he was building towards cementing the tight-knit team in the top half of the 26-car field.

Schwerkolt has to run a makeshift entry while a new car is readied because he would otherwise face a penalty of $150,000 for every Supercars event his team missed.

A similar dilemma confronted Erebus Motorsport, whose owner Betty Klimenko fell out with the sponsor of the team's second car during the Townsville 400.

In the wake of the dispute, Supercars championship series rookie Aaron Russell split with the team early this week, taking the majority of his backing from Plus Fitness with him.

Strangely, although Russell's family owns the Commodore run by Erebus for him with its second entry licence, they are contractually obliged to leave the car with the team for the remainder of the season.

Again, Erebus has to keep fielding a second entry under the terms of its agreement with Supercars to avoid being fined $150,000 for missing an event.

The team has brought in its veteran endurance race co-driver Craig Baird as a stand-in for the Ipswich SuperSprint, as well as arranging interim backing from the main sponsors of lead driver David Reynolds' Holden.

Oddly, Russell's disaffected sponsor has maintained a minor presence on Reynolds' car, in which the sacked Prodrive Ford star has occasionally over-achieved by mixing it with the front-runners.

After spending tens of millions of dollars on racing Mercedes AMG E63s with factory backing for three years, Klimenko this year downsized her team and rescued Reynolds while make a cost-saving switch to a Commodore.

In the tangled web of intrigue, Plus Fitness logos appeared on the otherwise lightly branded all-black LDM Commodores at Townsville.

LDM still has no major commercial backing after a proposed sponsorship deal with a tobacconist chain was ruled illegal just before the Townsville 400.

The team's Holdens of Nick Percat and Tim Blanchard are again competing at the Ipswich SuperSprint in all-black livery with no significant sponsor branding other than Holden signage.

Percat scored an upset victory in the chaotic second leg of the season-opening Adelaide 500 in early March, scoring LDM's first and only race win amid confusion among the top teams.

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP

Ipswich SuperSprint

What: Races 16-17 of 29

Where: Queensland Raceway, Willowbank, near Ipswich, QLD

Track length: 3.12 km

Format: SuperSprint (Saturday 39 laps/120 km, Sunday 65 laps/200 km).

Championship points (top 5): 1 Jamie Whincup (Holden Commodore) 1545; 2 Shane

van Gisbergen (Holden Commodore) 1492 (-53) ; 3 Mark Winterbottom (Ford

Falcon) 1470; 4 Craig Lowndes (Commodore) 1392; 5 Scott McLaughlin (Volvo S60)

1374.

SCHEDULE

Saturday