Drivers' Quoteboard: Tyrepower Tasmania 400 Preview
Craig Lowndes, Red Bull Racing Australia:
“The AGP again showed that we have a great car this year, so we’re feeling pretty confident heading into Tassie.
“It’s obviously a really strong field this year though, as always, so we’ll have to make sure we qualify well at Symmons Plains.
“We’ve had a pretty good run in qualifying so far this year. It’s something JJ (engineer Jeromy Moore) and I have been working on, so hopefully we can continue that and get another set of good results in the bag this weekend and hang onto that championship lead.”
Fabian Coulthard, Lockwood Racing:
"Symmons is one of those tracks that’s always been kind to me.
"I got my first podium there in 2009 so to win two races last year was pretty awesome – the first Championship wins of my career and I'm looking forward to getting a few more.
"The circuit is great; it looks pretty simple on paper but it's quite a technical little track.
"There are only five or so corners but you generally find that first to 25th is covered by less than a second so it's one of those places that you have to be 100 per cent accurate all the time to get the best possible lap.
"I think we made some good setup inroads at the grand prix. I’m a lot more confident with the qualifying speed in the car now, I've always said that’s the easiest time to pass cars.
"I think we're heading in the right direction, I'm pretty confident of that so we’ll see how we go when we get there."
Rick Kelly, Jack Daniel’s Racing:
"Symmons Plains for us is an exciting round, I love Tassie.
"I've earlier had a chance to shoot across there and have a go on the tree-top zip lines and have a look around, and it's a very exciting place for me from an adventure point of view.
"I did the Mark Webber Challenge down there, and I quite enjoyed it. Generally we only get the chance to go from the airport to the track and to the hotel, so it was good have a bit of a look around.
"From a racing point of view, it was one of the tougher rounds that we did last year with our straight line speed issue, so I'm quite excited to get back there this year to see what we can achieve, now that we've made significant gains in that area.
"We've come off the back of the Clipsal 500, which was a fantastic opening round for us, there was a couple of tough issues there, but we had really good pace, and at the Grand Prix again we were quick, and we made some good improvements throughout the weekend.
"We've definitely got much stronger momentum heading there this year, for me personally, I just want to build on the points base from Adelaide where we sit in fourth place.
"It's going to be tough, there's a lot of guys out there that are doing a great job and have good pace and had some bad luck at Clipsal as well.
"So we're quite focused on just getting the most out of the car and doing a good job to try and defend that position, and hopefully move forward to the later rounds this year."
James Courtney, Holden Racing Team:
“Tasmania is a really tight weekend, and the grid is normally very close there.
“If you’re down half a tenth of a second there it could mean dropping quite a few grid positions, which means you can get caught up in carnage.
“To make sure we get out of the mayhem, we have got to make sure that we get everything out of qualifying and come away with top results.”
Mark Winterbottom, Ford Pepsi Max Crew:
“Symmons Plains is one of my favourite venues on the calendar. The team’s success there obviously forms part of it but the layout is very unique and puts a lot of emphasis on qualifying which I really like.
“Racing last weekend in Brazil has meant a busy two weeks since the Grand Prix but the experience was amazing. The racing was close and the field had so many talented drivers so to score a podium was very satisfying. I’ve certainly broadened my knowledge which is never a bad thing and I am now looking forward to racing for the third time in as many weeks.”
Jamie Whincup, Red Bull Racing Australia:
**“**After a tough start to the season I’m looking to turning things around at Symmons Plains this weekend. We feel we’ve showed good pace but have struggled to put it all together on the day.
“As we mention every year, that crazy tight hairpin is extremely important to get right as it leads onto a very long back straight.
“Fingers crossed Tassie turns on the weather and we get plenty of local supporters come out as its always better racing in front of a good crowd.
“With the short turn around to Winton, it’s really important to keep the car straight while trying to score as many points as you can.”
Tim Slade, Supercheap Auto Racing:
“The races at Symmons Plains are always super-close.
“It’s a place where one tenth of a second in qualifying can mean seven spots on the grid, so you really have to make sure that your laps are razor-sharp.
“We have to make sure that we’re getting the most out of the SCA Commodore – and being up the front keeps you out of the carnage… If we get everything together then the podium for the SCA team is more than achievable, but it’s just super-competitive at the moment in the category.”
Garth Tander, Holden Racing Team:
Click here for Tander's preview.
James Moffat, Norton Hornets:
“Symmons Plains was frustrating last year, but our cars have shown significant improvement since we were (there) last, so I think we can expect to be a bit more competitive.
“Of the events that are coming up, Symmons is probably going to be the most challenging, considering where our overall package is. The track has the slowest corner, leading onto a 270km/h straight, which is our worst case scenario.
“Having said that, with the off-season improvements we’ve had, we should be much closer to the pace than last year.
“Typical of Symmons Plains, the times between the cars is split by nothing. If you’re a couple of tenths off, you can be right down the back, so qualifying will be critical.
“My focus for the weekend is to come out of Symmons Plains in a similar championship position to where I am now (10th). I feel that if we come out of here OK, then we’ve got some really good tracks coming up like Winton, New Zealand and Perth that should suit us."
Michael Caruso, Norton Hornets:
“I’m excited to go to Tasmania. I’m in a decent spot in the Championship, and I’m not far off those in front.
“We know what we’ve done to the car in the off season has helped us, so we’re in a better position than we were last year.
“The circuit is technically quite hard. There’s only a handful of corners, so you have to get your set-up spot on for qualifying, and that will be the key to getting a result.
“The weather will play a big part as well. If you can make the right calls at the right time, then we could be in for a good weekend.”
Russell Ingall, Repair Management Australia Racing:
“The simplicity of the track makes it harder for us to find that extra fraction of a second and give ourselves an edge over the other teams.
“We’ve seen it already this year and especially at this track, there is a good chance the entire field will be separated by less than a second in qualifying and I think we’ll be seeing a couple of unexpected players further up the grid.”
David Reynolds, The Bottle-O Racing Team:
“I’ve never really had a great run at Symmons Plains, but in all seriousness I am looking forward to having another go as the last two events haven’t been that fruitful. Consistency will be key so we must make sure we finish and try and get on top of the car a bit earlier in practice as I think that is where we’ve been lacking. The new shorter sessions aren’t ideal especially as the Next Generation cars are harder to make changes to, but everyone is in the same situation.”
Scott McLaughlin, Valvoline Racing GRM:
"I am looking forward to Tassie and I’m aiming to take the feeling from winning in Melbourne with me. I think the Volvo will work at the Symmons Plans track, it has got pretty long straights and a good flow which will suits our car.”
Jack Perkins, Team JELD-WEN:
“It is always nice to race in Tassie as the track is small and provides close racing. We are looking to show some of the gains we’ve made in the first two events and try and improve our championship position. We are 16th but I think we can make the most of our on track time, qualify well and have some stronger race results. We effectively lost an hour of track time on Friday but it is the same for everyone so we need to maximise the time on track and also the off-track work we do to perform as well as we can. Time will tell on the safety car restarts. It will be interesting to see how the new rules pan out.”
Lee Holdsworth, Erebus Motorsport:
“Looking back at last year’s Tasmania round, at that point of the year our results were quite strong considering where we were with our development package so it gives me a bit of confidence going back there that hopefully we can run in the top 10 down there.
“In saying that though, I think a lot of other teams have stepped up their game since last year so while we have moved forward at a great rate, I think everyone else has moved forward as well to a certain degree.
“Moving from the Grand Prix, knowing that we finished up with a really good car there at the end of the weekend and also at Clipsal, we know that the package is there for us, we just need to unlock that speed earlier on in the weekend to get qualifying right.
“The field is just so close at the moment that where you qualify is really where you are going to run in the race. It’s really difficult to move forward from there unless you make up from people’s mistakes as there’s not a lot of passing going on.
“But Tassie is a great little racetrack for racing, it always puts on a great display for the spectators and there’s a couple of decent passing opportunities there.
“Down to the hairpin, which is one of the best corners in the country out of all the race circuits, is where you can actually run side-by-side through the corner and sometimes the guys on the outside will get the advantage because the corner is quite banked and cambered.
“Hopefully we can take advantage of what we learned at Clipsal and AGP and put it to good use down there and make sure we end up with a good qualifying car.’’
Will Davison, Erebus Motorsport:
“Tassie is a unique circuit and there are key areas with braking, which I think we’ve got a good handle on.
“It’s a very enjoyable track for a driver – you can attack very hard, it has good corners and the hairpin is very unique and technical.
“Lee (Holdsworth) was 13th there last year and that was so early in the piece. That shows it was one of Erebus’ more competitive showings and we know how far the car has come since then so we should be gunning for some pretty solid races.
“Traditionally I have had a pretty good run there. It’s good to get a strategy with the longer race on the Sunday where tyres come into play, so it’s certainly going to be an interesting weekend.
“The races are always nuts around there because the field is always so close. It’s really intense and that’s the nature of Tassie racing.’’
Todd Kelly, Jack Daniel’s Racing:
"It's very encouraging the speed we've been having, especially qualifying fifth at the last round at Albert Park, but not being able to turn that into a race result.
"It showed the raw car speed, but it still needs some fine tuning that we need to do.
"We went quite well at Symmons Plains last year, and we had quite a big aero deficiency and we were in the very early stages of our engine program, so we arrive there this year with a much better car and good knowledge on how to get a good setup and balance for that circuit.
"I can't wait to get there and see what we can do, especially after a DNF at the biggest points round so far at the Clipsal 500, I've got a bit of work to do, and hopefully I can make a start with that at Symmons Plains."
Jason Bright, Team BOC:
"I think the strengths that we had at the Grand Prix will really prove to be what you need at Tassie.
"I'm really confident we'll have good pace there, it's time to start collecting some silverware.
"Last year, Jamie (Whincup) was the one to beat all year and he came out of Adelaide looking pretty strong. We were left to play catch up with him all year.
"There were a few guys who came out of Adelaide this year, Jamie included, that have all got to make up a bit of ground if they're going to be contenders and that's good for us.”
Chaz Mostert, Ford Pepsi Max Crew:
“This year marks the first time I’ve raced in Tasmania in a V8 Supercar. The first thing to get my head around will be the hairpin as it won’t be as easy as back in the Formula Ford days. Symmons Plains only has a few corners but there is plenty of space to pass so it should be a good place to race. I am looking to a much better weekend than Adelaide and Albert Park so this is my turnaround event. Tasmania is one of the most beautiful places in the world so I am looking forward to getting there.”
Robert Dahlgren, Valvoline Racing GRM:
”I can’t wait to go to Tasmania. It seems to be a real drivers track and looking at last year's footage, it is going to be close. I think that we have a good car and package for the weekend and I hope to continue climbing up the result list.”
Tickets are available for the Tyrepower Tasmania 400 now.
