Why Tasmania has the 'sketchiest first lap' of the year
Tasmania hairpin the slowest corner of the year
Symmons Plains will host 51st championship round
Hobert street party to launch event on August 14
Symmons Plains Raceway’s infamous Turn 4 hairpin lends itself to arguably the "sketchiest first lap” of the season, says James Courtney.
The 2024 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint next weekend.
The 2.4km circuit, located just outside Launceston, will host its 51st championship round. Only Sandown (54) has hosted more.
In its 50 rounds, Tasmania has been a hotspot for chaos, with the tight 60km/h hairpin a key player in much of the drama over the years.
The first lap itself begins with a bottleneck through the right-left Turn 1-2 section, with the field often running two-wide down to the hairpin.
There is a high chance of nose-to-tail collisions, drivers getting turned around or squeezed into the right-hand fence, or even spearing across the field at corner exit. Courtney knows best, having earned Will Davison's ire over a first-lap clash in 2015 (pictured above).
“I reckon it's the sketchiest first lap of any race all year,” Courtney said on Supercars' Drivers Only podcast.
“When you drive down to the hairpin and you're like, ‘Do you want to go to the inside and then like have five cars pass me, and get two more on the exit?’
“I reckon it's cool. It's one of our historic events. Old circuit, and it has a lot of character for such a little place."
There are two distinct lines at the hairpin; run high, or turn in sharply. On the first lap, where you are in the two-wide dictates where you end up on the other end of the corner.
"Is there a worse feeling than getting stuck on a slow train on the inside? You're like, come on,” Anton De Pasquale said.
“The race is always intense. You're always looking in your mirror. There's always a tow.
“I think it'll be good. It should be good based off what we're doing now… and these cars have a little bit more draft, so you get sucked in at the end of the straight.”
In a first for Tasmanian motorsport fans, Supercars will roar on the streets of Hobart in mid-August, when the championship arrives for the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.
From 3:00pm to 6:00pm on Wednesday August 14, Supercars will host a street party at Hobart’s Princes Wharf No. 1.
Following the event in Hobart, the Repco Supercars Championship will head north to race at Launceston’s Symmons Plains Raceway from August 16-18 at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.
Tickets to Tasmania’s largest annual sporting event can be purchased via Supercars.com.
