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Sport Nation
Supercars: Three drivers to back in Tasmania Super 440
Duncan Perkinson • May 8th, 2025 2:28 pm
Cam Waters winning the 2024 Tasmania SuperSprint | Photo: EDGE Photographics
After a fantastic festival of motorsport in Taupō, the Supercars championship makes its return this weekend back in Australia, crossing the Bass Strait to Tasmania for Races 11 and 12 on Saturday, then Race 13 on Sunday.
The Tasmania Super 440
Symmons Plain Raceway is in north-east Tasmania, just a short drive from Launceston. The two Saturday races will run for 50 laps (120 kms) each, while the Sunday race is 78 laps.
Saturday’s Race 11 is at 2:05pm (NZT) and the lights go green for Race 12 at 5:55pm. Sunday’s race starts at 4:45pm.
While Tasmania is not famed for its weather, the good news is that the rain is forecasted to stay away.
Tyres, Fuel and Pitstops
Both the soft and super-soft tyre compounds will be used across the two 120km races on Saturday, while it will be the Super Soft for Sunday’s race.
Drivers must stop once during each of the two races on Saturday to change at least two tyres. For the Sunday endurance race, drivers must stop twice for fuel.
The Track
From a historic perspective, Symmons Plain is second only to Sandown on the championship calendar and have been racing here since 1969. While long in history, it is the one of the shortest tracks that the Supercars Championship visits at just 2.41 kms long.
One thing you can almost guarantee this weekend is that the margins will be very tight across qualifying. With a lap time less than a minute, the margin across the entire field will likely be covered by less than a second.
The Symmons Plains track is defined by its slow-paced hairpin at Turn 4.
What makes Turn 4 most interesting is that there are a couple of different racing lines to go round it.
Drivers can either go wide, cut the corner of the apex and accelerate out. But if the preceding car does go wide, there’s the chance for the following driver to go in narrow and subsequently cut underneath - two-time New Zealand champion Shane Van Gisbergen was a specialist at this move.
These multiple lines make for exciting and aggressive racing.
The straight leading into the hairpin was the site of one of the more infamous Supercars accidents in 2017, when twelve cars crashed and the track was described as looking more like a carpark than a racetrack.
Who has been strong at Symmons?
From a driving perspective, current Triple Eight team boss Jamie Whincup has the most race wins at Symmons Plains with 13 victories. Triple Eight have been the dominant team with 26 wins from its last 51 starts.
While Fords were dominant at the last round in Taupō, traditionally, Holdens/Camaros have been very strong at the Tasmania track. From a round win perspective, the blue ovals have only won two of the last thirteen events.
Fabian Coulthard won for DJR in 2017 and Cam Waters won last year.
Over the past two years, Will Brown has been very strong at the venue, both last year and in 2023 when he won the round in the Erebus car.
The Kiwis
The best placed Kiwi across the weekend in 2024 was Andre Heimgartner, who finished 6th in the second race of the weekend. Heimgartner has done well over the past few years, highlighted by finishing runner-up in 2023.
Over the past two seasons, Mat Payne has always struggled on the Tasmanian track. He has never finished higher than 15th and his average position across five races is 18th.
2024 was Ryan Wood’s first time racing at Symmons Plains in the main game and he finished 11th and 8th.
Last year, Jaxon Evans crashed with Aaron Love in Saturday’s race heading as both were heading towards the Turn 4 hairpin and he didn’t finish, while in the Sunday race he finished last.
New Zealander Richie Stanaway will bring up a century of races in Sunday’s race. He has had a turbulent time in Supercars experiencing the highest of highs (winning Bathurst with Shane van Gisbergen in 2023) to the lows of being let go by two teams and then retiring in 2021, before making a successful return to the sport.
Fun Fact from the Archives:
40 years ago, New Zealand’s Robbie Francevic won the Australian Touring Cars Championship round at Symmons Plain in the Volvo. He repeated the victory in 1986 as part of his championship winning season.
betcha are offering a multi-bet option on the first race of the weekend, so based on Camaro strength over the years and drivers who have driven well on the track, one betting strategy could be:
Nick Percat top 10 finish - 1.52
Andre Heimgartner top 10 finish - 1.82
Will Brown podium finish - 2.00
ALL SELECTIONS WIN = 5.53
Andre Heimgartner top 10 finish - 1.82
Will Brown podium finish - 2.00
ALL SELECTIONS WIN = 5.53
All betcha odds are current at the time of publishing - R18, please gamble responsibly.
