Fast Facts: Merlin Darwin Triple Crown

1) This year marks the 25th time the Australian Touring Car Championship/Repco Supercars Championship has visited Hidden Valley Raceway. The first round was held in 1998 and the circuit has featured on the championship calendar every year since, including two rounds during last year’s COVID-impacted 2020 season.

2) James Courtney will move into 10th place on the all-time ATCC/RSC race starts list when he starts Race 2 of the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown, representing the 476th championship race start for the Tickford Racing pilot.

3) Repco Supercars Championship leader Shane van Gisbergen may have won the first six races of the 2021 season but the last six races have been won by six different drivers: SVG, Whincup, Chaz Mostert, Andre Heimgartner, Anton De Pasquale and Cam Waters. The last time six different primary drivers won consecutive races was 2018. The championship record is nine, between Race 19 and Race 27 in 2013.

4) Jamie Whincup has one last chance to become the most successful driver in championship history at Hidden Valley before retiring from full-time Supercars racing at the end of the 2021 season. The Red Bull Ampol Racing driver has the most race wins of any active driver in Darwin with seven. Two wins this weekend would see him surpass current record holders Mark Skaife and Scott McLaughlin, who have eight wins apiece.

5) The driver starting from ARMOR ALL Pole Position has struggled to convert it to a race win at Hidden Valley in recent years: the pole-sitter has won just 10 of the last 33 races in Darwin. However, the trend has started to change with seven of the last 15 races won by the car starting on pole.

6) Chaz Mostert is the only driver who still holds bragging rights over his teammates when it comes to ARMOR ALL Qualifying in 2021. The Walkinshaw Andretti United racer is the only driver on the grid to outqualify his teammates in all 11 qualifying sessions held so far this season.

7) By taking two poles at The Bend, Anton De Pasquale became the fourth driver in ATCC/RSC history to take his first career pole position and then back it up with his second at the next attempt, joining Bob Jane, Mark Skaife and his Dick Johnson Racing teammate Will Davison. Skaife is the only driver to take his first three championship poles on the bounce, a feat De Pasquale can match by taking the ARMOR ALL Pole Position for Race 1 at Hidden Valley.

8) A total of 15 different drivers have set the fastest lap out of the last 16 Championship races held at Hidden Valley; only Chaz Mostert has doubled up. The driver that sets the fastest lap in each race at Hidden Valley will earn five championship points provided they are classified as a finisher.

9) The record for the lowest grid position by a race winner at Hidden Valley dates back to the inaugural event in 1998. Russell Ingall started from 13th on the grid to win Race 2 for the Castrol Perkins Racing team and went on to win the round overall.

10) The return of wildcard drivers Thomas Randle and Kurt Kostecki swells the Repco Supercars Championship field to 26 cars and the tally of Hidden Valley rookies to four. Unlike at The Bend where both had made previous championship starts, the Tickford Racing and Walkinshaw Andretti United drivers will make their Darwin debuts as will Erebus Motorsport duo Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki.