A visit to Tasmania in the course of winter? Sure, Supercars ventured to the Apple Isle within the eighth spherical of a 12-event championship and the final of the dash races with the enduros nearly upon us.
The frosty Symmons Plains bore witness to some strategic masterclasses, loads of incidents and additional shifting of factors on the pointy finish of the championship. Listed here are the speaking factors from the Tasmania SuperSprint.
Percat wins Race 17
Matt Stone Racing mastered their pit-stop and capitalised on their Symmons Plains tempo to see Nick Percat energy via for a second win of the season throughout Saturday’s 55-lapper.
The 2011 Bathurst 1000 winner began Race 17 from fourth, earlier than overcutting polesitter Broc Feeney and his fellow front-row starter Cameron Waters through the obligatory pit-stop part and rising forward of the duo.
A nifty 3.8-second tyre change for the Bendix Camaro benefitted Percat, who was troubled momentarily by championship contender Feeney – earlier than breaking freed from the chasing Pink Bull Ampol Camaro.
Chaz Mostert working another technique – taking three tyres versus the 2 tyres that his instant rivals took – was a late contender for the win. Mostert picked off Waters and Feeney, earlier than in the end coming inside 0.614 seconds of his former teammate.
Feeney accomplished the rostrum with a much-needed third inserting for his maiden title aspirations, surviving a near-run-in with Richie Stanaway through the pit stops. The 21-year-old hadn’t completed within the high three since sweeping the Darwin Triple Crown three rounds in the past.
It was 35-year-old Percat’s sixth profession win and first time since 2020 that he’d scored a number of wins in a single season. As well as for Matt Stone Racing, it was their first time successful greater than as soon as within the Supercars championship.
Waters wins incident-laden Race 18
The Tickford Mustangs locked out the front-row of the grid for the ultimate dash race of the season, with Thomas Randle edging Waters for pole place. The pair then battled right down to the Flip 4 hairpin on the opening lap for the lead, which was received by the Monster Power Mustang.
From there, Waters’ supremacy was unrivalled as there have been two security automotive appearances to neutralise the 55-lap affair. Firstly on Lap 7, when David Reynolds was beached on the grass on the exit of the hairpin – being drilled round by reigning champion Brodie Kostecki.
The pair have been battling for fourth, after a profitable qualifying from Group 18 and a want to validate their automotive velocity seen in Friday’s apply session the place Reynolds was quickest. As a substitute, Kostecki was concerned with not simply one of many Charlie Schwerkolt-owned vehicles, however two.
Mark Winterbottom nonetheless managed to complete ninth, regardless of Kostecki making contact with the Membership Cadet Camaro with an unsafe launch within the pit lane. The protection automotive meant that the whole thing of the sphere scrambled to finish their obligatory tyre change and there was loads of double stacking.
Making issues worse for Kostecki, he was hit with three penalties for his varied indiscretions. A 15-second time penalty for the tag on Reynolds and two separate drive-through penalties; one for the unsafe launch and one for rushing within the pits.
The race was beneath security automotive situations a second time on Lap 19 when rookies Aaron Love and Jaxon Evans discovered one another on the pit-straight. Love left nothing in the best way of racing room for the SCT Logistics Camaro, sending Evans off into the grass after which the wall which tore a part of the rear-end off.
Combating for the rostrum locations have been championship chief Brown and polesitter Randle, who with 11 laps to go had rolled up his sleeves into the hairpin and was bumping the Pink Bull Ampol Camaro whereas attempting to side-draft.
Brown returned serve, which noticed Randle need to traverse the grass at Flip 7 and lose out third to Feeney within the sister Pink Bull. The Castrol Mustang recovered from that fake pas and was inside hanging distance of each the Bulls heading into Flip 4 once more – although this time locked up and made contact with Feeney.
A 15-second time penalty noticed Randle relegated to 18th, whereas Brad Jones Racing’s Bryce Fullwood scored his second-ever Supercars podium behind Waters and Brown. The 26-year-old final secured a high three in his rookie 2020 season for WAU.
Title struggle tightens
The 2 dash races in Tasmania supplied additional implications on the battle for the driving force’s championship, because the factors hole on the high of the standings tightened for one, however grew for an additional.
Mostert; who’s Walkinshaw Andretti United group got here into the weekend with issues at how they’d carry out on the Supersoft tyre – a historically weaker compound for them – leaves the weekend with a diminished margin of 81 factors to Will Brown.
It was as little as 63 factors following Race 17, the place the two-time Bathurst 1000 winner achieved second. Brown’s personal troublesome Saturday, with a pink flag in qualifying seeing him positioned in a lowly fifteenth, barely improved with a fightback to seventh.
Race 18 qualifying noticed fortunes reversed because it was Mostert who didn’t make the highest ten within the elimination format – having simply fallen outdoors in eleventh. Whereas Brown put in his greatest Q3 lap for fourth place.
Chaz Mostert after Perth Supersprint. (Photograph by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Photographs)
Second for the Pink Bull Ampol racer on Sunday, forward of the Mobil 1 Optus Mustang in fourth, clearly noticed an 18-point swing again into the championship chief’s favour. with the endurance races subsequent up in Sandown and Bathurst.
Regardless of a podium end on Saturday, Feeney’s title tilt took a blow within the closing levels of the Sunday 55-lapper. He was rotated on the Flip 4 hairpin by Randle, with secondary contact additionally placing the 21-year-old right down to fifteenth and lengthening his deficit to his teammate within the standings out to 198 factors.
Allen in, Stanaway out at Grove
The Supercars foolish season swirled round reigning Super2 champion Kai Allen following the final occasion in Sydney, with the general public information that an possibility that DJR had on the 19-year-old had lapsed, which means he was free to hunt a drive anyplace.
Enter Grove Racing, who introduced they’d be parting methods with Richie Stanaway after solely a single season and as a substitute committing to the DJR enduro driver – who at the moment leads this 12 months’s Super2 championship additionally.
It was a tough actuality for 32-year-old Stanaway, the reigning Bathurst 1000 winner after having received it with Shane van Gisbergen and because of this put himself into body for a full-time return to Supercars.
The extremely credentialed Kiwi, who’s a race winner within the GP2 Sequence (now F2) and within the World Endurance Championship’s GTE class, has had it uncooked in relation to the Supercars collection as a full-time driver. In 2024, the metrics compared to race-winning teammate Matt Payne have been in favour of his compatriot; 15-1 in qualifying and 10-5 within the races.
It’s unhappy to see Stanaway once more struggling, regardless of the expertise there as witnessed in his Bathurst successful co-drive and again in 2017 when he partnered with Waters en path to a Sandown 500 win within the moist.
Allen, who’s extremely rated additionally and will likely be partnering with Davison for the endurance races this 12 months, has secured a long-term cope with Grove Racing – who’ll even be fielding the youngest line-up in 2025 with Payne nonetheless 21 years previous.
Ryan Wooden was additionally introduced to have been retained by Walkinshaw Andretti United on a multi-year deal because the 20-year-old rookie sits seventeenth within the standings with two greatest finishes of fourth up to now.
One other calendar (and common Supercars) gripe
Those that observe this column usually will know the deep antipathy for the form of the Supercars calendar. Particularly, to the purpose of 12 occasions not being sufficient or the actual fact the unfold of occasions sees an low season between rounds.
Positive, there’s the entire price debate of including extra rounds to the championship. However on this event, the gripe will pertain to how and why Supercars deemed it acceptable to carry the Tasmania SuperSprint throughout a month when on common the temperatures are the coldest all year long.
However, however, the racing diehards will courageous any situations to be standing up on the hill at Symmons Plains – some antiquated corners of the online will argue. Proper, so how in regards to the common spectator? A demographic who might inject some income into the class, as a substitute of the ‘diehard’ group that even 9 years on from Foxtel’s acquisition of the printed rights complain advert nauseam in regards to the shift away from FTA.
As a lot as rusted-on racing tragics like myself might not totally grasp the flâneur idea in relation to fandom of Formulation One, for instance, from a enterprise and advertising perspective, it’s a goldmine that Supercars seems to be oblivious in tapping into.
It could be irritating for some, however it’s fascinating how F1-based content material has flooded the Gen Z/TikToker zeitgeist. And so they’re in all probability those shopping for tickets to occasions, gathering all of the merchandise and paying for streaming subscriptions to entry the game.
Make the Supercars occasions accessible, placed on a present. Get a recent perspective in broadcast and within the predominantly Information Corp-owned media that report on Supercars.
And sure, please transfer the Tasmania and Sydney rounds to a extra accessible time of the 12 months – in addition to including the likes of Winton and Queensland Raceway again into the schedule to fill these low season gaps between rounds.
