The Tasmania SuperSprint (formally known as the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint) is an annual
motor racing
Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...
event for
Supercars
A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance sports cars. Since the 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as t ...
, held at
Symmons Plains Raceway
Symmons Plains Raceway is a motor racing circuit in Australia, located about south of Launceston, Tasmania. Since the closure of the Longford circuit in the 1960s it has been Tasmania's premier motor racing facility. The circuit is one of the ...
in
Launceston,
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
. The event has been a regular part of the Supercars Championship—and its previous incarnations, the
Australian Touring Car Championship
The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the Repco Supercars Championship awarded the trophy ...
,
Shell Championship Series
The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport.
Supercars events take place in all Australian ...
and V8 Supercars Championship—since
1969
This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon.
Events January
* January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco.
* January 5
**Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...
.
Behind
Sandown Raceway
Sandown International Raceway is a motor racing circuit in the suburb of Springvale in Melbourne, Victoria, approximately south east of the city centre. Sandown is considered a power circuit with its " drag strip" front and back straights be ...
, which has most commonly hosted the
Sandown 500
The Sandown 500 (formally known as the Penrite Oil Sandown 500) is an annual endurance motor race which is staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from 1964. The event's name, distance – and the category of cars comp ...
and
Sandown SuperSprint, Symmons Plains has hosted the most events in championship history with 49 as of 2022. Prior to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, the only hiatus for the event was between 2000 and 2003 during which the circuit received a
A$3 million upgrade.
The event is seen as one of Tasmania's largest sporting events, providing a variety of benefits to the local economy.
Format
The event is staged over a two-day weekend, from Saturday to Sunday. Two thirty-minute practice sessions are held on Saturday, then a three-stage knockout qualifying session which decides the grid positions for the following 105 kilometre race. Two separated ten-minute qualifying sessions are held on Sunday, which decide the grid for the following 105 km races.
History
When the Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) was first held over a series of races in
1969
This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon.
Events January
* January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco.
* January 5
**Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...
, Symmons Plains was included on the calendar as the final race of the series. The race would decide the championship that year, as Alan Hamilton could take the title from
Ian Geoghegan
Ian "Pete" Geoghegan, (26 April 1939 – 15 November 2003) was an Australian race car driver, known for a quick wit and natural driving skills. Sometimes referred to as "Pete" Geoghegan, he was one of the iconic characters of the 1960s and 197 ...
if he won the race and Geoghegan failed to score. Geoghegan's car failed to start at the one-minute signal and his pit crew push started the car. This was not allowed under the regulations of the time and Geoghegan was disqualified. Hamilton ended up finishing the race in second place behind
Norm Beechey
Norm Beechey is a retired Australian race car driver, who was given the nickname ''"Stormin Norman"'' by his fans. To some, he was the closest thing Holden had to a star racing driver, before Peter Brock. Beechey competed in the Australian Tou ...
, losing the title to Geoghegan by a single point.
After again hosting the final round in
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...
, Symmons Plains became the home of the opening round, hosting the first event of the ATCC every year from
1971 *
The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6).
The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history.
Events
Ja ...
to
1981
Events January
* January 1
** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union.
** Palau becomes a self-governing territory.
* January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...
.
Allan Moffat
Allan George Moffat OBE (born 10 November 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian-Australian racing driver known for his four championships in the Australian Touring Car Championship, six wins in the Sandown 500 and his four win ...
and
Peter Brock
Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, al ...
were the most successful drivers at the event in this period, taking seven of the eleven possible victories between them.
John Harvey John Harvey may refer to:
People Academics
* John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician
* John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture ...
also scored his only two ATCC victories at the event, winning in 1976 and 1979.
In 1985,
Robbie Francevic
Robert James Frančević, (born on 18 September 1941 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a retired racing driver who featured prominently in New Zealand and Australia during the 1970s and 1980s. His biggest wins were the inaugural Wellington 500 street r ...
won his and
Volvo
The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
's first round victory, winning again in 1986. Between 1988 and 1990,
Dick Johnson joined Moffat as the only two drivers to win three consecutive rounds at the circuit. In 1993,
1980
Events January
* January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.
* January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC.
* January 9 – ...
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
World Champion
Alan Jones won his first ATCC round, despite a clash with
Mark Skaife
Mark Skaife (born 3 April 1967) is a retired Australian motor racing driver. Skaife is a five-time champion of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, including its predecessor, the Australian Touring Car Championship, as well as a six-time Bath ...
which led to a confrontation after the race. In the late 1990s,
Holden Racing Team
Walkinshaw Andretti United is an Australian motor racing team based in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton. The team currently fields two Holden ZB Commodores in the Supercars Championship for Nick Percat and Chaz Mostert, along with a Porsche 91 ...
dominated the event with four consecutive round wins from 1996 to 1999. During this period, the Symmons Plains event remained in the early part of the ATCC calendar until
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
, when it was moved to August. The
Government of Tasmania
The Tasmanian Government is the democratic administrative authority of the state of Tasmania, Australia. The leader of the party or coalition with the confidence of the House of Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Tasmania, is invite ...
didn't renew the event's contract after 1999 and the race dropped off the calendar in 2000.
Following the completion of a circuit upgrade in 2004, which included the construction of permanent pit lane facilities and a resurfacing of the track, a new deal was struck to bring the event back onto the calendar in November of the same year. Tasmanian driver
Marcos Ambrose
Marcos Ambrose (born 1 September 1976) is an Australian former racing driver and current Garry Rogers Motorsport competition director. He won the Australian V8 Supercar series' championship in 2003 and 2004.
In 2006, Ambrose relocated to the Un ...
went into the 2004 event attempting to seal a back-to-back championship victory, until an engine failure in the third and final race of the weekend delayed his coronation as champion.
David Besnard
David Besnard, (born 21 January 1977 in Sydney, Australia) is a retired professional racing driver.
Career history
Starting in karts in 1991, he quickly proceeded into Formula Ford in 1995. After initial success, he had a major accident at Easte ...
and three other drivers benefited from a fortuitous late-race safety car to jump to the front of the field, before the four drivers were then demoted to the back of the field at a subsequent safety car due to confusion regarding the standings. Several days later, Besnard was credited with the win, the only win for
WPS Racing
WPS Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian V8 Supercar racing between 2004 and 2007. It was owned by Queensland businessman Craig Gore and sponsored by his Wright Patton Shakespeare company.
History
In 2003, W ...
. Initially on its return, the event was generally held towards the end of the season, often as the penultimate event, until a move to the early stages of the championship calendar in 2012.
Between 2007 and 2015,
Jamie Whincup
Jamie Whincup (born 6 February 1983) is an Australian professional racing driver competing in the Supercars Championship. He currently is team principal for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He has driven the No. 88 Holden Commodore (ZB), Holden Z ...
and
Triple Eight Race Engineering
Triple Eight Race Engineering, (branded as Red Bull Ampol Racing) is an Australian motor racing team competing in the Supercars Championship. The team has been the only Brisbane based V8 Supercar team since its formation, originally operating ...
dominated the event with six wins. This has seen Whincup surpass Brock as the most successful driver in the event's history. In 2013,
Fabian Coulthard
Fabian "Fabs" Coulthard (born 28 July 1982) is a British-born New Zealand professional race car driver, currently competing in the Repco Supercars Championship, driving as an endurance co-driver for Chaz Mostert with Walkinshaw Andretti United ...
won
Brad Jones Racing
Brad Jones Racing is an Australian motor racing team owned by Brad Jones based in Albury. The team competes in the Supercars Championship and the Super2 Series. Recently they have also returned to Australian Formula Ford where Brad and Kim be ...
their first championship round, winning two races with team-mate
Jason Bright
Jason Bright (born 7 March 1973) is a retired Australian racing driver who competed in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. He drove the No. 56 Ford FG X Falcon for Britek Motorsport, a satellite team of Prodrive Racing Australia, be ...
winning the other. In 2017, the Saturday race was suspended after two laps due to a twelve car pile-up in wet conditions. While the race later briefly restarted under safety car, no championship points were awarded due to the short distance completed, however
Shane van Gisbergen
Shane Robert van Gisbergen (born 9 May 1989) is a New Zealand racing driver in the Supercars Championship racing in the Number 97 Holden ZB Commodore car for Triple Eight Race Engineering. With three Supercars Championship wins (2016, 2021, 202 ...
was still credited with a race victory. In 2018, a three-stage knockout qualifying system was introduced to the championship at Symmons Plains to reduce the risks of traffic. Craig Lowndes won the round, his last round win as a solo driver, and his first at the circuit since 1998.
The 2020 event was postponed until November to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, before later being cancelled altogether.
Winners
Multiple winners
By driver
By team
By manufacturer
; Notes
* – DJR Team Penske was known as Dick Johnson Racing from 1980 to 2014, hence their statistics are combined.
Event names and sponsors
* 1969–85, 1987–99, 2004: Symmons Plains
* 1986:
A.N.L. Cup
* 2005–06:
Ferodo
Ferodo is a British brake company based in Chapel-en-le-Frith in High Peak, Derbyshire.
History
It was founded in 1897 by Herbert Frood (1864-1931), with manufacturing starting in Gorton in 1901 and moving to Chapel-en-le-Frith in 1902. Fero ...
Triple Challenge
* 2006: Ferodo Tasmania Challenge
* 2007–12:
Falken Tasmania Challenge
* 2013: Tasmania
Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft 365 is a product family of productivity software, collaboration and cloud-based services owned by Microsoft. It encompasses online services such as Outlook.com, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, programs formerly marketed under the name Mic ...
* 2014:
Tyrepower Tasmania 400
* 2015–19: Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint
* 2021:
Beaurepaires
Beaurepaires is an Australian and New Zealand tyre retail and repair chain started in 1922 by Frank Beaurepaire, a former Olympic swimmer for Australia and Australasia, with money he received for rescuing a shark attack victim from the water a ...
Tasmania SuperSprint
* 2022–:
NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint
See also
*
List of Australian Touring Car Championship races
The list of Australian Touring Car Championship Races is a list of all the races or rounds which have been held in the combined 60-year history of the Australian Touring Car Championship, V8 Supercars Championship and Supercars Championship.
As o ...
References
External links
2015 event page
{{V8 Supercar Teams
Supercars Championship races
Motorsport in Tasmania