Supercars: Tassie Truth Bombs

The Straight And Narrow


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This weekend, we're off to the Apple Isle for the Tyrepower Tasmania Supersprint.

After a dramatic weekend of racing at Albert Park, there'll be plenty more argy bargy to come for the Supercars around the popular country circuit, about 30 kilometres south of Launceston.

With some help from our mates at Supercars.com, let's drive you through some fast facts to grease the wheels.


1. For those keeping count, this will be the 46th time the series formerly known as the Australian Touring Car Championship has sailed south over the Bass Strait. The only other track to have hosted more rounds is Sandown.

2. Bingles are common and the panelbeaters are used to long nights as cars jostle for position on the narrow bitumen - some 11 cars crashed out of the Saturday race just last year, with the race shortened to 4 laps while the tow trucks cleaned up.

Shane van Gisbergen survived the carnage to bank the win (and the points).

3. Jamie Whincup can boast about a lot of things (his 7 Championships, for example), but can also lay claim to the closest race-winning margin at Symmons Plains, edging Craig Lowndes by 0.1038s in 2008.

4. While we're talking about Whincup, he also holds the qualifying and race records at the circuit. Just sayin'...

5. Until last year, Holden was on a roll in Tassie, winning 13 straight races. That was until Fabian Coulthard snapped the streak with victory on Sunday.

6. You'd have to go back to 1998 to find a race at Symmons Plains when a race didn't involve the Safety Car.

7. Mark Winterbottom, Fabian Coulthard and Michael Caruso have never not finished a race in Tassie.

8. Symmons Plains is known for its super tight hairpin, Brambles, at the end of the old front straight, which looks a bit like the famous Fairmont Hairpin in the Monaco Grand Prix, without all the casinos and champagne.


Practice for the Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint starts on Friday.

Sean Maynard

2 April 2018

Article by:

Sean Maynard




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