Symmons Plains: An oldie, but a goodie

It's one of the oldest racetracks on our V8 Supercars tour, with 2015 being the 43rd year it hosts a round of the Championship.

So much incredible history way before I was even a thought - my parents were just school kids. It's pretty amazing to think that 40 years ago this year, Symmons Plains hosted the first car race that was telecast on colour television in Australia! And look at us now. We have hamburger cam! We have 25 cars with in-car cameras. You can sit in the comfort of your lounge room with your Woodstock bourbon, hit the red button and literally be in the car with your favourite driver, tuning into his radio.

Symmons Plains plays an important role on our Championship calendar. It doesn't have the glitz and glamour or the rock star feel of the Clipsal 500 but it has its own unique atmosphere.

It's one of the best viewing tracks, where you can see the majority of the circuit from just sitting on the hill. It's a real race fans' track. Nothing too fancy - just park yourself on the grass hill for the day and watch the V8 Supercars come thundering down into the turn four hairpin lap after lap.

This weekend we see the first of our SuperSprint formats and we will also see the soft Dunlop tyre in use for the first time in 2015.

The format is slightly different to last year - shorter races on Saturday, only 60km or 25 laps on hard tyres; a shake up on Sunday when drivers qualify on hard tyres but race 200km, 84 laps, with one set of soft tyres available.

This certainly will mix things up, as strategy will have to incorporate the 120 litre mandatory fuel drop, plus the best way to maximise the tyre combinations.

Click here for engineer Phil Keed's explanation of how teams will tackle the weekend's format.

The format this weekend also sees short and intense 10-minute qualifying sessions on Saturday. We love these sessions as they produce a hive of activity on track and often simulate an all-in shootout. However, with such a short lap time - only 51-odd seconds - and 25 cars all vying for track time, this is going to be very tough for engineers to choose the correct time to send out their driver.

It can create dramas for guys who are on fast laps with closing speeds of 270km/h off the back straight and the guys who are on warm-up laps. We have seen miscommunication in the past for drivers, which can be very costly for lap times.

The 2.41km 'bullring' circuit is known for two main things. The tricky turn four hairpin and the long back straight. The hairpin is one of the most unique corners we see on the calendar and has been the undoing of many drivers in years gone by. It's one of two major passing opportunities on the track and also at only 50km an hour it's the slowest corner of any circuit on our Championship calendar.

Drivers and engineers will talk about braking a lot this weekend! Just how tough this track is on brakes. For example, they will hit speeds of about 240km in sixth gear heading down to turn four, then downshift to first gear down to 50km to get around the tight hairpin in a matter of seconds.

I was lucky enough a few years ago to go for my first ever hot lap in a V8 Supercar here at Symmons Plains and it was the heavy braking that was so brutal and really surprised me the most. You feel like you are going to be shot through the front windscreen when they stamp on the brakes. I honestly thought we were headed straight for the gravel trap every time!

Last year, even though the boys with wings 'clipped' each other and probably copped an after race meeting detention from Principal Dane, Red Bull cleaned up and dominated the weekend.

It will be interesting to see after what has been a traditionally average showing at the AGP whether they will be back to tasting celebration champers come Sunday afternoon.

PRA will be full of confidence after the outing at Albert Park and Frosty will be more motivated then ever to actually get the stats and wins now he can claim some Championship points.

Riana's Wrap

- Qualifying will be difficult and is crucial as the races are shorter on Saturday with limited passing opportunities.

- Sunday strategy will be varied. Who will push the soft tyre to its limit to get the maximum advantage? Go too far and you will be punished.

- The lap is so short it's very easy to get caught out on strategy and go down a lap if not careful.

- So many fast guys out there, yet form is hard to judge. Will someone surprise the usual front-runners?