Fast Facts: Bunnings Trade Sydney SuperNight

This event marks the 26th time the Repco Supercars Championship has held a round at Sydney Motorsport Park and the second year in a row that it will hold multiple rounds during a season, with the Bunnings Trade Sydney SuperNight marking the first of four events in consecutive weekends at the Western Sydney venue.

The next six rounds in the championship are all in New South Wales: four at Sydney Motorsport Park, then Bathurst, followed by Newcastle to open 2022. If they go ahead as scheduled it will be the first time more than three rounds in a row have been run in the same state in championship history.

When the opening race of the Bunnings Trade Sydney SuperNight gets underway, 104 days will have passed since the previous race of the 2021 season in Townsville in July. It marks the third longest gap between races in championship history, shorter only than the 112 days between the penultimate and final rounds of the 1970 season and the 125 days between the Adelaide 500 and first Sydney Motorsport Park round of last year’s COVID-impacted championship.

Anton De Pasquale and Macauley Jones will both reach 50 career Repco Supercars Championship rounds starts at the Bunnings Trade Sydney SuperNight. The Brad Jones Racing driver made his championship debut first as a co-driver at the 2015 Sandown 500, while the Dick Johnson Racing pilot debuted at the 2018 Adelaide 500.

Two drivers have completed all 798 racing laps this season so far: Red Bull Ampol Racing duo Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup, who are also sitting in first and second places in the championship standings.

A total of 21 different drivers have claimed wins across the 59 championship races held at Sydney Motorsport Park to date, including eight on the 2021 grid: van Gisbergen and Whincup with four wins apiece, Chaz Mostert and Nick Percat on two each, while Will Davison, Mark Winterbottom, Fabian Coulthard and Jack Le Brocq have all taken one race win at SMSP.

The lowest grid position for a race winner at Sydney Motorsport Park is 17th. Rick Kelly started 17th and won the 2004 300km race, and event that was declared due to wet weather with 67 of the scheduled 77 laps completed.

Holden drivers have only taken one of the last 16 ARMOR ALL Pole Positions up for grabs at Sydney Motorsport Park. Volvo have three while Ford claimed the other 12. In fact, 10 of those last 16 poles have been taken by Scott McLaughlin.

Erebus Motorsport rookies Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki are the only drivers on the grid yet to start a Repco Supercars Championship race at Sydney Motorsport Park. While they are making their ‘main game’ debuts at SMSP, each driver has a pair of Dunlop Super2 Series starts at the venue including last year’s round.

There have only been five races so far this year where the BP Ultimate Safety Car has appeared. Of those, no race this year has had multiple SC periods.