CONTENTS OFFICIAL PROGRAM
19-21 MAY 2023, SYMMONS PLAINS RACEWAY, TASMANIA
08
PRE ROUND PREVIEW
Three rounds and nine races are down in the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship. Who can catch championship leader Brodie Kostecki?
04 06
WELCOMES
The Tasmanian Government, NED Whisky, Repco and Supercars welcome you to Symmons Plains.
EVENT SCHEDULE
A full run down of what’s on the track so you don’t miss your favourite category.
2023 DRIVER & TEAM POINTS
The latest pointscores in the Repco Supercars Championship leading into this round.
This year’s round marks the 50th ATCC/Supercars Championship round at Symmons Plains and we take a look back at how it’s unfolded. 46
14
16
SYMMONS PLAINS HISTORY
SUPERCARS ENTRY LIST
Your quick-reference guide to car numbers, drivers, teams and cars.
SUPERCARS DRIVER PROFILES
We take a look back at what unfolded at Symmons Plains last year. 52
2022 FLASHBACK
SYMMONS PLAINS WINNERS
Some of the greatest drivers in championship history have conquered Symmons Plains. We take a look at the most successful of them.
CHAMPIONSHIP STATS CORNER
Your quick reference guide to the most race wins, pole positions and podium finishes in championship history.
SUPPORT CATEGORIES
Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge, Battery World Aussie Racing Cars, Formula Ford and Tassie Tin Tops.
62
TASMANIA NUMBERS
A snapshot of the numbers that matter heading into this year’s NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.
EVENT OFFICIALS
Thank you to all officials and volunteers for the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.
TRACK MAP
Your guide to Symmons Plains Raceway, access gates, parking and much, much more.
2023 NED WHISKY TASMANIA SUPERSPRINT OFFICIAL PROGRAM
2023 NED Whisky Tasmania Supersprint Official Program is published by AN1 Media Pty. Ltd for Supercars
Editor: Aaron Noonan
Editorial Contributor: Connor O’Brien
Editorial Assistant: Shane Rogers
Design: Daniel Goonan/TWOSIXONE Design
Advertising: Jaylee Noonan
Statistics: AN1 Data
Photos: Mark Horsburgh/Supercars, Ross Gibb, Nathan Wong, AN1 Images archive (Ian Smith/AUTOPIX, Graeme Neander, Dirk Klynsmith, Scott Wensley, Andrew Hall, Dale Rodgers, Justin Deeley), Bruce Thomas, Porsche Motorsport, Riccardo Benvenuti/Priceless Images
Thanks to Supercars staff, its teams and media/PR staff and all support categories for assisting in providing content for the 2023 NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint Official Program
Publisher: AN1 Media Pty. Ltd, PO Box 6040, Cromer, Victoria 3193 Phone: +61 3 9585 1981, Email: info@an1media.com
© The material contained in the 2023 NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint Official Program is protected by Australian and international copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the prior permission of the publisher.
WELCOME 2023 NED WHISKY TASMANIA SUPERSPRINT
ON behalf of the Tasmanian Government, I’m delighted to welcome you to Tasmania’s iconic Symmons Plains Raceway for the fourth round of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship.
The NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint will see the new generation of Camaro and Mustang battle it out for the chequered flag in Tasmania for the first time.
We’ve already seen a thrilling start to the 2023 championship, and we look forward to a full weekend of exciting ontrack action here in Tasmania’s north.
Alongside the Supercars SuperSprint program will be a host of quality support categories, including the Porsche Michelin Sprint Series, Aussie Racing Cars, Formula Ford and the local Tassie Tin Tops, contributing to an action-packed three days at Symmons Plains Raceway.
The circuit has been a staple of the Supercars Championship for decades,
having first hosted a round of the then Australian Touring Car Championship in 1969.
It’s considered one of the best viewing circuits on the calendar for spectators, with many excellent vantage points and the opportunity to ‘Park and View’ the race from your own car.
The Tasmanian Government, through Events Tasmania, is proud to support this fantastic motorsport event, which draws motor racing enthusiasts from across our state and beyond Bass Strait.
If you are visiting, please enjoy the region’s warm hospitality and take the opportunity to sample our state’s amazing local produce and the many wonderful experiences and attractions on offer in northern Tasmania.
We hope you enjoy all that this weekend has to offer, both on-track and off-track, and wish the best of luck to all drivers and their teams.
THERE are some things that we just do right in Australia – Supercars and whisky are certainly on that list.
It’s a great honour to be back at Symmons Plains in for the NED Whisky Tasmanian SuperSprint in 2023. This is one of the great Australian racetracks. If you position yourself correctly on the hill almost the whole track is visible, something we think is overlooked when judging ‘great’ tracks.
By lucky coincidence, Saturday 20 May also doubles as World Whisky Day – so we can’t think of anywhere we’d rather be than on the hill with a NED Australian Whisky in hand, watching the world’s best race series.
It’s been an exciting start to the season – Gen3 is certainly mixing things up.
created is remarkable. It would have been easy to revert to a global formula, but what we have is a truly Australian racing series – cars designed and built by us, raced by us and unlike anything else in the world.
We take the same pride in our work with NED – made from Aussie grains grown by the world’s best farmers, matured in our unique climate and crafted by local Aussie legends. Our whisky may be bourbon in style, but there’s really nothing like it anywhere else in the world.
Driven by flavour, geared through innovation – great Aussie racing deserves a great Aussie whisky.
Come and say g’day this weekend if you see us on the hill and if you’re having a NED enjoy it responsibly.
Ryan Buckle Director Sales & Marketing NED Australian WhiskyRemember the Gen3 demo laps here last year? We’ve come a long way since then! The team at NED raises a glass to everyone at Supercars. What they’ve
Here’s to a couple of great, safe races and happy World Whisky Day! And to cheering Davey Reynolds and Matty Payne to the podium!
REPCO is pleased to welcome all race fans back to Symmons Plains Raceway in Tasmania for the fourth round of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship.
And what a championship we have on our hands!
The new Gen3 race cars have really hit the mark – both on the track and off the track with the fans. The racing has been fantastic, and while teams unlock the best that these new cars have to offer, we’ve been provided some fantastic racing and close battles.
The speed of the Erebus Motorsport cars has been great to see. They are really punching with the big players of the sport now. Some people have been waiting for them to have a ‘bad round’, but it hasn’t come yet, and judging by their speed in Perth, it doesn’t look like it’s going to come anytime soon.
The Symmons Plains circuit will
certainly offer a new challenge to the Gen3 cars. The cars are pretty slippery in a straight line, so look for them being fast down the back straight, but the famous hairpin will be a completely different story ...
For me, one of the most enduring sights at Symmons Plains is the huge flock of fans that grace the back straight and the hairpin. The grass fields are loaded with race goers of all ages, and I have no doubt that there will be even more fans there this year to see these new generation of cars in action.
Repco is proud to be the major sponsor of the Repco Supercars Championship. I know that our crew in our great number of Repco stores across Tasmania will be embracing the Supercars action over the week, and they’ll be bringin’ the passion that this great championship produces.
WELCOME to the 50th edition of Australian Touring Car Championship racing here in Tasmania, the 2023 NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.
On behalf of the entire team at Supercars, it is my utmost pleasure to extend a warm welcome to all the fans, enthusiasts, and participants joining us for this momentous event.
We are thrilled to be here in Tasmania once again, marking the 50th edition of this prestigious event at the iconic Symmons Plains.
This week’s event holds an even greater significance as it marks the first-ever time we bring to our fans in Tasmania the exhilarating battle between the Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang.
This is a momentous occasion, one that will surely ignite the passion and excitement of motorsport fans at the circuit and across the state.
In addition to this epic showdown, we are thrilled to present an extraordinary line-up of on and off-track entertainment.
Some of the world’s best drift drivers will showcase their skill and precision, pushing the limits of what’s possible on the track.
Formula Ford makes a triumphant return to the support card, bringing with it a legacy of excellence. It’s worth noting that 11 current Supercars drivers have emerged as champions in the Formula Ford category, a testament to its status as a breeding ground for exceptional talent.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to NED Whisky for their invaluable support as the naming rights partner of this event once again in 2023. Their commitment to Australian motorsport is truly commendable, and we are honoured to have them on board.
To all our loyal fans, volunteers, broadcast partners and sponsors, thank you for your unwavering support and dedication throughout the years.
Let us come together and celebrate the thrilling sport of motorsport, where speed, skill, and adrenaline combine to create unforgettable moments.
SUNDAY 21 MAY 2023
Note: All times are local Tasmania time, AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
IS A BOILOVER BREWING?
This
year’s Repco Supercars Championship
is off to an exciting start and, as CONNOR O’BRIEN reports, what unfolds in Tasmania will be hard to predict …
SYMMONS Plains sees the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship enter its second quarter with a very real chance of a title boilover on the cards. With each and every race, Erebus Motorsport and Brodie Kostecki are cementing their status as genuine contenders.
The #99 Coca-Cola Camaro driver now has eight podium finishes from the opening nine races and a 100-point advantage in hand.
His next challenge to maintain that lead comes in traditional Triple Eight territory, the Brisbane-based team having annihilated its competition at Symmons Plains for more than a decade. But a lot of that inside
knowledge goes down the drain now with teams finding little to no set-up carryover year-on-year thanks to the introduction of Gen3.
So, that should be good news for anyone wanting to see Triple Eight’s Tassie stranglehold end. But be wary, managing director Jamie Whincup has put his team on notice, blasting the “unacceptable” qualifying inconsistency they experienced in Perth and calling for better. How will Shane van Gisbergen, Broc Feeney and their respective crews respond?
And can the other driver in the Triple Eight/Erebus mix, Will Brown, surge into regular contention after breaking through for a stellar Sunday win at Wanneroo
Raceway? While all the focus is on the newfound Erebus versus Triple Eight rivalry, the quiet achiever continues to be Chaz Mostert.
With seven top five finishes already, Mostert is leading Ford’s championship charge and is actually Kostecki’s nearest threat in the standings. After a slow start in Western Australia, Mostert found a direction which he believes will hold the #25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang in good stead for the visit to the Apple Isle, where his first WAU win came in 2021.
The fastest Fords have however tended to come from the Penrite Racing garage.
David Reynolds has started six races inside the top six, and rookie teammate
Matt Payne has impressively often been right on his tail.
It’s continued to be a mixed start for the more traditional Ford heavyweight teams, Dick Johnson Racing and Tickford Racing. DJR has shown much improved pace at the past two rounds but have been left to rue various mishaps which have kept them off the podium.
Intriguingly, James Courtney has shone brightest at Tickford, with star teammate Cam Waters experiencing a rare qualifying slump.
Across Albert Park and Perth, Waters started four successive races from 15th or worse; Courtney meanwhile was comfortably top 10 all weekend at Wanneroo Raceway including his latest podium result.
The other Mustang in the field, the Blanchard Racing Team’s #3 for Todd Hazelwood, found form in the west after an up-and-down start to the season. On the other side of the fence, it has not been happy hunting for all Chevrolet teams.
Fast starters Brad Jones Racing and Matt Stone Racing came back to the pack in Perth, with lead drivers Andre Heimgartner and Jack Le Brocq off the pace.
It was a shocker for Team 18 also as milestone man Mark Winterbottom had to settle for results of 18th, 18th and 19th on the weekend of his 600th Supercars Championship race start.
Nulon Racing had reason to smile at least, with Tim Slade jagging a pair of top 10 results to continue Peter Xiberras’ squad’s promising start to Gen3. With another 315 championship points on the line this weekend in Tasmania, how will Kostecki’s title bid look at the end of Round 4?
And – will we see another thrilling, rough and tumble showdown between him and van Gisbergen? The answers are just around the corner …
“DJR HAS SHOWN MUCH IMPROVED PACE AT THE PAST TWO ROUNDS BUT HAVE BEEN LEFT TO RUE VARIOUS MISHAPS WHICH HAVE KEPT THEM OFF THE PODIUM.”
INTRODUCING REPCO REWARDS EARN POINTS. GET REWARDED.
EXCLUSIVE OFFERS
GIFT CARDS
FREE PRODUCTS
ADRENALINE–FUELLED EXPERIENCES
GET REWARDED. JOIN TODAY!
2023 NED WHISKY TASMANIA SUPERSPRINT
ENTRY LIST
ENTRY LIST
Note: Entry details subject to change after deadline for this program had closed.
ADVERT neds
NICK
PERCAT 2010 134 297 4 14 2
AGE 34 YEARS FROM ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA LIVES MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
2011 BATHURST 1000 WINNER
2016 ADELAIDE 500 WINNER
@nickpercat @nickpercat
THIS year marks a major change for Nick Percat, his first season in the Repco Supercars Championship at the wheel of a Ford after 288 championship race starts exclusively driving Holden Commodores. This season is his second with Walkinshaw Andretti United after a relatively difficult 2022 in which he finished 15th in the championship.
The highlight of last year for the 2011 Bathurst winner was undoubtedly his second-place finish as part of a WAU 1-2 in the Saturday race at his home event, the VALO Adelaide 500.
TASMANIA STATS
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
7th 10th 0 9th
2014 9 8 13th 20 0 25th
Percat made his Supercars Championship debut at the 2010 Phillip Island 500 codriving a Walkinshaw Racing Commodore and this year marks his 10th season as a full-time driver in the championship.
He spent four years (2010-2013) as an endurance co-driver with the Walkinshaw team under the Bundaberg Racing and Holden Racing Team banners before getting his first full-time season in 2014 at the wheel of a Walkinshaw-run Commodore.
From there he spent two seasons (20152016) with Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport and five seasons (2017-2021) with Brad Jones
Racing, which included two race wins at Sydney Motorsport Park in 2020 and two pole positions – in 2020 in Townsville and 2021 at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Percat has made 12 Bathurst 1000 starts and, in addition to his win alongside Garth Tander in 2011, finished third in 2014 with Brit Oliver Gavin and again in 2016 alongside Cameron McConville.
He won the 2009 Australian Formula Ford Championship and finished runner-up to Craig Baird in the 2013 Porsche Carrera Cup Australia championship in addition to spending three seasons competing in the Dunlop Series.
TODD Hazelwood makes the move for 2023 to driving the CoolDrive Racing Mustang for the Blanchard Racing Team.
Hazelwood is hardly a stranger to racing in CoolDrive’s distinct blue colours given he drove under its banner in a Commodore (then run by Brad Jones Racing) as co-driver to Tim Blanchard in the 2017 endurance races at Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast.
This year marks Hazelwood’s sixth season in the Supercars Championship. He made his debut at Queensland Raceway in 2017 as a one-off wildcard entry in a Matt Stone
AGE 27 YEARS FROM ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA LIVES GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND
2017 DUNLOP SUPER2 SERIES WINNER
2014 MIKE KABLE YOUNG GUN AWARD WINNER
@toddhazelwood @toddhazelwoodracing
TASMANIA STATS
HAZELWOOD 2017 74 168 3rd 1 1
BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
5th 9th 0 4th
2018 9 4 4th 10 0 11th
Racing-run Commodore.
He joined the championship full-time the following season with MSR and stayed with the team in 2019 before embarking on two seasons with Brad Jones Racing across 2020 (when he scored a breakthrough pole position in Townsville and his first podium at Sydney Motorsport Park) and 2021.
Hazelwood moved back to MSR last year as part of its two-car team alongside Jack Le Brocq.
He is a product of the Supercars pathway system having spent four seasons in the Dunlop Series with MSR between 2014 (the
year he won the Mike Kable Young Gun Award for best first-year driver) and 2017. Hazelwood finished fifth in the 2015 series and third in 2016 (the year he also won the Privateers Cup Award) before going one step further the following season.
Hazelwood won the Dunlop Super2 Series in 2017 (including two round wins) and clinched the crown in the final round of the season with overall victory on the streets of Newcastle.
It set up his graduation into the Supercars Championship and he’s been a permanent part of the grid ever since.
YOUNG gun Jack Smith returns for his fourth straight season in the Repco Supercars Championship this year as part of the four-car line-up from Albury-based Brad Jones Racing.
He joins Andre Heimgartner, Bryce Fullwood and Macauley Jones in BJR’s squad of drivers as the team retains the same four pilots from 2022 into 2023.
Smith made his Supercars Championship debut at Symmons Plains in Tasmania in 2019 as a wildcard and competed in additional rounds of that year’s championship, also as a wildcard entry.
AGE 23 YEARS FROM GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND LIVES YARRAWONGA, VICTORIA
2017
V8 TOURING CAR SERIES WINNER
2018/19 BNT V8s NEW ZEALAND CHAMPION
TASMANIA STATS
SMITH 2019 46 114 10th 0 10th
BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
15th 12th 0 10th
2019 9 3 14th 8 0 22nd
He co-drove a Matt Stone Racing Commodore with Todd Hazelwood in the Sandown, Bathurst and Gold Coast endurance races held later that year before stepping into the championship on a full-time basis in 2020 at the wheel of a BJR-run Commodore. Smith finished 22nd in the 2020 championship, 21st in 2021 and 24th last year.
A product of the Supercars ladder system, he won the V8 Touring Car Series in a BJR Commodore in 2017, concurrently racing a newer model BJR-run VF Commodore in that year’s Dunlop Series. Smith competed
in the Dunlop Series in 2018 and 2019 and finished 10th in the final points in each of those two seasons.
Prior to his involvement in Supercars, Smith raced in the Australian Formula 4 Championship for open wheelers and in the Australian GT Trophy Series at the wheel of a MARC car.
He also finished third in the Invitational Class of the 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race and spent time building his experience racing offshore. Smith won the 2018/19 BNT V8s Championship in New Zealand at the wheel of a Commodore.
JAMES
AGE 42 YEARS FROM PENRITH, NEW SOUTH WALES LIVES GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND
2010 SUPERCARS CHAMPION
2014, 2015 ADELAIDE 500 WINNER
@jcourtney @jamescourtneyracing
THE ever-smiling James Courtney returns to the Repco Supercars Championship this season for his fourth straight year at the wheel of a Tickford Racing Mustang.
The 2010 Supercars Champion during his time with Dick Johnson Racing, Courtney is this year competing in his 18th season as a full-time driver in the Supercars Championship.
Courtney came to Supercars with impressive international credentials. A twotime world karting champion, he also won the British Formula Ford Championship and was a race winner in the British Formula 3 Championship before a huge accident
TASMANIA STATS
COURTNEY 2005 236 535 15 65 10
BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
2nd 5th 6 3rd
2006 7 16 3rd 39 1 17th
at Monza in Italy while testing a Jaguar Formula 1 car in 2002 changed the course of his career.
He raced in Japan and won the 2003 Japanese Formula 3 Championship and then shifted to racing in the SuperGT series.
Courtney’s Supercars Championship debut came in the 2005 endurance races as a co-driver with the Holden Racing Team. He then joined the championship full-time, replacing Marcos Ambrose at Stone Brothers Racing for 2006.
He spent three seasons with SBR (including two Bathurst 1000 podium finishes and his first championship race win at
Queensland Raceway in 2008) before moving on to spend two years with Dick Johnson Racing in its Jim Beam-backed Fords.
Courtney joined the Holden Racing Team in 2011 and stayed with the Walkinshawrun team right through to 2019. In that time he and the team won seven championship races, including three at the Adelaide 500.
He signed to drive for Team Sydney but only competed in Adelaide in 2020 before leaving the team.
Courtney stepped into a Boost-backed Mustang at Tickford Racing after the COVIDenforced pause of that year’s championship and has remained with the team ever since.
CAM
WATERS 2011 108 232 9 43 19
AGE 28 YEARS FROM MILDURA, VICTORIA LIVES MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
2017 SANDOWN 500 WINNER
2015 DUNLOP SERIES WINNER
@cam_waters @camwaters94
NOW in his eighth season in the Repco Supercars Championship, Cam Waters has proven himself to be one of men to beat in the modern era of Supercars racing and has become the main strike weapon for Tickford Racing.
The Melbourne-based Ford team is again running four cars in the championship this year with Waters joined in the driver line-up by James Courtney, Thomas Randle and newcomer Declan Fraser.
Waters made his Supercars Championship debut as a teenager at Bathurst in 2011 sharing a Commodore with Grant Denyer after winning the Shannons
2023 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS RACE WINS RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS POLES
3rd 2nd 1 3
2016 9 6 1 14 1 7th
Supercar Showdown TV series.
He spent the following years in the Dunlop Series, eventually winning the title in 2015 driving a Prodrive Racing Australia (now known as Tickford Racing) Falcon FG.
Waters finished runner-up in that year’s Sandown 500 alongside Chaz Mostert and took over Mostert’s #6 Falcon for the Gold Coast, Pukekohe and Phillip Island rounds after its regular pilot was injured in a qualifying crash at Bathurst.
He graduated full-time to the Supercars Championship in 2016 at the wheel of a Monster Energy-backed Falcon and has been part of the furniture of the
championship ever since.
Waters’ first championship pole position came in Western Australia in 2016 and he and Kiwi Richie Stanaway teamed up to win the Sandown 500 the following year in a dominant display.
Voted the ‘Drivers’ Driver’ of the 2020 season by his peers, Waters has shone at Bathurst in recent years. The Bathurst 1000 pole-sitter in 2020 and 2022, he has finished on the podium in each of the last three years in the ‘Great Race’ at the wheel of Tickford’s Monster Energy Mustang.
Waters also finished runner-up in the Supercars Championship in 2020 and 2022.
ANDRE
AGE 27 YEARS FROM AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND LIVES GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND
@andreheimgartner @AHRacing
2021 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP RACE 9 WINNER – THE BEND 2017/18 NZ TOURING CARS CHAMPION
Batteries 2014 99 225 1 10 2
NEW Zealander Andre Heimgartner starts his 100th Supercars Championship Round in the #8 R&J Batteries Racing entry for Brad Jones Racing.
This year marks Heimgartner’s eighth fulltime season in the championship and comes after a stellar 2022 with BJR.
He finished 10th in the championship pointscore (the best of his Supercars Championship career) and had four podium finishes, including two on home soil at Pukekohe in New Zealand.
The 2017 Porsche Carrera Cup Australia runner-up also had a lucky escape at The Bend when he ploughed into the back of
HEIMGARTNER BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
TASMANIA STATS
2023 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS
Racing DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
8th 4th 0 5th
2015 9 6 2nd 15 1 8th
the stalled Mustang of Thomas Randle. Both drivers emerged unscathed from the frightening accident.
Heimgartner made his Supercars Championship debut in 2014 driving a Super Black Racing wildcard entry at Bathurst alongside countryman Ant Pedersen.
He raced for the team full-time in 2015 and made the move to driving a Commodore for Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport in 2016.
The Kiwi moved to racing a Porsche in the Carrera Cup series for 2017 but was called up to replace the injured Ash Walsh in a Brad Jones Racing Commodore at Bathurst alongside Tim Slade.
The duo drove together again on the Gold Coast and a podium result caught the eye of Kelly Racing, who signed him up for 2018 to replace the retiring Todd Kelly at the wheel of one of its Nissan Altimas.
He spent two years driving a Nissan before the team moved to Ford Mustangs for 2020 and brought in new partners in the Grove family in 2021.
Heimgartner broke through for his first Supercars Championship race win that year at The Bend Motorsport Park in one of the team’s Mustangs and moved on to BJR for 2022.
WILL
AGE 24 YEARS FROM TOOWOOMBA, QUEENSLAND LIVES TOOWOOMBA, QUEENSLAND
2-TIME SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP RACE WINNER 2016 TOYOTA 86 SERIES WINNER
Racing by Erebus 2018 35 83 2 8 2
A LACONIC lad from Toowoomba in Queensland, Will Brown has quickly carved himself an impressive resume in Australian motorsport. This year is his third year in the Repco Supercars Championship with Erebus Motorsport after a stunning rookie season in 2021.
In that year he scored his first Supercars Championship race win and pole position (both at Sydney Motorsport Park), was fastest in qualifying for the Bathurst 1000 and finished an impressive eighth in the championship. Brown made his Supercars Championship debut in 2018 co-driving an Erebus Commodore with Anton De Pasquale
BROWN DEBUT RACES ROUNDS RACE WINS RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
@willbrown38 @willbrownmotorsport
TASMANIA STATS
BEST FINISH POLES PODIUMS BEST QUAL
5th 1 0 4th
2021 9 2 1 6 4 4th
in that year’s Sandown, Bathurst and Gold Coast races and returned in the same role for the 2019 races.
He co-drove with David Reynolds for Erebus at Bathurst in 2020 before taking over the seat in the team’s #9 entry when Reynolds left at the end of the season.
Brown’s history in the junior categories is indeed impressive. He won the Australian Formula 4 Championship and Toyota 86 Racing Series in the same year – 2016 – that he also finished runner-up in the Australian Formula Ford Series.
He moved into the Dunlop Super2 Series in 2017 with Eggleston Motorsport and won
the Mike Kable Young Gun Award for the best first-year drivers.
Brown spent three years learning the ropes of Supercars with the Eggleston team before making the move to drive an Image Racing, Erebus-supported Commodore in the 2020 series.
He finished runner-up to Thomas Randle in the COVID-shortened season (there were only three rounds held).
The versatile young racer also won the Invitational Class in the 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour and won the inaugural TCR Australia Series in 2019 at the wheel of a HMO Customer Racing Hyundai.
ANTON
AGE 27 YEARS FROM MELBOURNE, VICTORIA LIVES GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND
2021 ARMOR ALL SUPERCARS POLE AWARD WINNER 2013 AUSTRALIAN FORMULA FORD CHAMPION
@antondepasquale @antondepasquale86
THIS year marks Anton De Pasquale’s sixth season in the Repco Supercars Championship and his third driving one of Dick Johnson Racing’s Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Mustangs.
He’s proven blindingly fast in qualifying and already amassed 15 championship pole positions, 10 of which were claimed in the 2021 season in which he was awarded the ARMOR ALL Pole Position Award for most pole positions in that year.
He made his Supercars Championship debut at the wheel of one of Erebus Motorsport’s Commodores at the 2018 Adelaide 500 and spent three seasons with
TASMANIA STATS
DE PASQUALE 2018 70 163 8 29 16
BEST FINISH POLES PODIUMS BEST QUAL
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
2nd 1 3 3rd
2018 9 4 5th 10 0 19th
the Melbourne-based team.
De Pasqaule also scored his first Supercars race win with the team, at Hidden Valley in Darwin in 2020.
De Pasquale’s championship progression continues; he finished 20th in 2018, 14th in 2019, eighth in his last year with Erebus in 2020, sixth with DJR in 2021 and fourth last season.
He’s also proven to be a Sydney Motorsport Park expert in his time in Supercars, claiming five race wins there in 2021 and seven poles there across 2021 (six) and 2022 (one).
The young gun was a winner in junior
open wheeler categories before he raced in Supercars.
He won the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2013 and headed to Europe to follow his racing dreams.
De Pasquale won the 2014 Formula Renault 1.6 Northern European Cup but ran out of sponsorship funding and was forced to return home.
He linked with Paul Morris to drive a Falcon in the 2016 Dunlop Series and returned the following year in a newer generation car to finish fourth in the series and win two rounds at Phillip Island and Sydney Motorsport Park.
THE only current Supercars Championship driver to originally hail from Darwin in the Northern Territory, Bryce Fullwood is back with Brad Jones Racing this year for his second straight season with the Alburybased team.
This year marks Fullwood’s fourth season in the Repco Supercars Championship as a full-time driver.
He made his Supercars Championship debut in the 2018 endurance races at Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast with Matt Stone Racing as co-driver with Todd Hazelwood in a Matt Stone Racing Commodore.
BRYCE
FULLWOOD
AGE 24 YEARS FROM DARWIN, NORTHERN TERRITORY LIVES GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND
2019 DUNLOP SUPER2 SERIES WINNER
2019 DUNLOP SUPER 2 BATHURST 250KM RACE RUNNER-UP
Middy’s Racing
The following year, 2019 (the same year he also won the Dunlop Super2 Series), Fullwood was signed by Kelly Racing to codrive a Nissan with Kiwi Andre Heimgartner in the three endurance rounds.
That opened the door to a full-time seat in the Supercars Championship as Chaz Mostert’s teammate at Walkinshaw Andretti United in 2020.
The emerging racer scored his first podium finish that season at The Bend Motorsport Park and he continued in the team’s #2 Commodore in 2021, a year highlighted by fifth-place in the Repco Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama alongside
the experienced Warren Luff.
Fullwood first appeared on the Supercars scene as a teenager back in 2015 competing in the Dunlop Series at the wheel of an exPaul Morris Motorsports Commodore.
He spent five seasons in the category including three (2016, 2017, 2019) racing Falcons and Nissan Altimas for MW Motorsport and one (2018) in a Falcon, and later, a Commodore run by Matt Stone Racing.
He won four rounds of the seven held in 2019 on his way to winning the Dunlop Super2 Series and finished on the podium in all bar one of them.
DAVISON 2004 236 527 22 78 28
AGE 40 YEARS FROM MELBOURNE, VICTORIA LIVES GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND
2009, 2016 BATHURST 1000 WINNER 2012 ADELAIDE 500 WINNER
@willdavison__ @willdavisonofficial
2023 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS
WILL Davison lines up for his 18th season as a full-time driver in the Repco Supercars Championship in 2023, his third successive year driving a Ford Mustang for the Shell V-Power Racing Team.
He’s no stranger to Dick Johnson Racing given he started his full-time Supercars career with the team in 2006.
Davison’s actual Supercars Championship debut came in 2004 in a Team Dynamik Commodore at Winton and, after joining DJR as a co-driver in the 2005 endurance races, he joined full-time in 2006 and spent three years with the famous Ford team.
The opportunity to replace Mark Skaife
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
RACE WINS BEST QUAL PODIUMS POLES
2 5th 10 1
2006 9 16 6th 39 0 9th
lured him away from Dick Johnson Racing to the Holden Racing Team for 2009, the year he won Bathurst with Garth Tander, finished runner-up in the Driver’s championship and helped HRT clinch the Team’s Championship as well.
He moved to Ford Performance Racing and spent three years with the factory Ford team (2011-2013) before two seasons at Erebus Motorsport (2014-2015) and two at TEKNO Autosports (2016-2017) that included a Bathurst 1000 win in 2016 alongside team owner Jonathon Webb.
A move to 23Red Racing for 2018 lasted until COVID struck in early 2020 when
sponsor Milwaukee Tools and team owner Phil Munday pulled the plug, forcing Davison to the sidelines.
He picked up a Bathurst co-drive alongside Cam Waters in a Tickford Mustang and they finished second, vaulting Davison back into a seat in the championship with DJR in 2021 as teammate to Anton De Pasquale.
Davison finished fourth in the 2021 pointscore in his first season back with the Queensland-based squad and showed plenty of pace in 2022 to take nine pole positions and win three races on his way to finishing fifth in the championship.
THE most experienced driver in the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship field, Mark Winterbottom is back for his 20th straight season as a full-time competitor in the championship.
So closely linked to Ford for so many years during his time with Ford Performance Racing and Prodrive/Tickford Racing, this is the fifth year for Winterbottom driving for Team 18 owner Charlie Schwerkolt.
After four years in IRWIN-backed Commodores, this year marks a change for him with new backing from DEWALT and a brand new Chevrolet Camaro race car.
The 2015 Supercars Champion,
AGE 41 YEARS FROM SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES LIVES MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
2015 SUPERCARS CHAMPION
2013 BATHURST 1000 WINNER
@markjwinterbottom
TASMANIA STATS
WINTERBOTTOM 2003 266 602 38 117 36
RACE WINS BEST QUAL PODIUMS POLES
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
1 5th 11 6
2004 9 18 6th 46 0 18th
Winterbottom made his debut in Supercars as an endurance driver with Stone Brothers Racing in its second car alongside Mark Noske at Sandown and Bathurst in 2003.
He’s been full-time in the ‘main game’ since 2004 and, after spending two seasons with Mark Larkham’s team, moved to Ford Performance Racing for the 2006 season.
His first Supercars Championship race win came that year alongside Jason Bright in the Sandown 500 and he became part of the furniture at the Melbourne-based Ford team as it morphed into Prodrive Racing Australia and then Tickford Racing.
All up Winterbottom spent 13 seasons
with the team through to the end of 2018, a stint highlighted by winning Bathurst in 2013 and the championship in 2015. He won nine races in his championship-winning season, including the Sandown 500 alongside Steve Owen.
Winterbottom won the 2003 Konica V8 Supercar Series (now known as Super2) at the wheel of a Stone Brothers Racingrun Falcon before his graduation into the Supercars Championship.
Following his 600th race start in Perth, he hits another milestone this weekend, turning 42 on the Saturday of the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.
PAYNE 2022 4 10 6th 0 5th
AGE 20 YEARS FROM AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND LIVES GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND
2021 NZ TOYOTA RACING SERIES WINNER
2022 MIKE KABLE YOUNG GUN AWARD WINNER
@matthewpayne_7 @matthewpayne.racing
MATTHEW Payne continues his rapid rise up the motorsport ladder with his first full-time season in the Repco Supercars Championship in 2023.
The young New Zealander only raced a Supercar for the first time in November 2021, while this year will be just his third full season racing cars since stepping up from karting.
He graduated to circuit racing in New Zealand’s Toyota Racing Series, winning the three-race 2021 title and finishing third in the New Zealand Grand Prix.
Payne was also the first recipient of the Team Porsche NZ scholarship under the
TASMANIA STATS
2023 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
2023 9 0 6th 0 0 12th N/A 5th 0 N/A
tutelage of multiple Le Mans 24 Hours winner Earl Bamber, leading to a drive in Porsche Carrera Cup Australia in 2021.
He impressed with back-to-back poles at The Bend Motorsport Park and Townsville and put in an assured drive to victory at the latter round, finishing sixth in the standings overall.
Payne’s form saw him recruited as the foundation driver of the Grove Junior Team in mid-2021, with the goal of graduating to the Repco Supercars Championship with the squad in 2023.
There were indications he’d move to the ‘main game’ sooner than that, but Grove
Racing elected to field him in a Nissan Altima in the second-tier class in 2022.
The extra season behind the wheel of a second-tier machine paid dividends with Payne sharpening his skills.
He led the points early in the season and eventually finished third in the series and won the Mike Kable Young Gun Award for his efforts as best first year driver in Supercars racing.
To cap his graduation, Payne finally made his ‘main game’ debut at last year’s Repco Bathurst 1000, impressing alongside veteran Lee Holdsworth in finishing sixth in one of the Grove’s team Penrite Mustangs.
THE arrival of Gen3 for this year represents a fresh start for Scott Pye at Team 18 in his fourth season with the Melbourne-based team.
Pye very nearly signed off last season with the ultimate race-winning reward at his home event in Adelaide, where he qualified on the front row for the Saturday race and came agonisingly close to breaking through for Team 18’s very first Repco Supercars Championship race win.
Pye joined Charlie Schwerkolt’s Team 18 outfit in a new second entry for the 2020 season as teammate to Mark Winterbottom and scored a podium finish at Hidden Valley,
PYE SCOTT
AGE 33 YEARS FROM ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA LIVES MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
2010 BRITISH FORMULA FORD CHAMPION
2017, 2018 BATHURST 1000 RUNNER-UP
East Coast Car Rentals
@scottpye19
the team’s first since becoming a standalone squad in 2016.
He ended his first season with the squad one place ahead of teammate Winterbottom in ninth in the final championship pointscore.
Prior to his time in Supercars, Pye raced karts and then Formula Ford in 2007 before he won races in both the British Formula Ford and Formula 3 Championships.
He returned home in 2012 and burst into Supercars driving for Triple Eight in the Dunlop Series, finishing runner-up overall and winning the Mike Kable Young Gun Award.
His first year in the ‘main game’ in 2013
with Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport was tough, though a top 10 finish at Bathurst was a highlight and enough to get him a gig with Dick Johnson Racing the following year in 2014.
Pye became a co-driver when Team Penske arrived and scaled the squad back to a single car in 2015, though Marcos Ambrose’s decision to step back again handed Pye the full-time seat.
He headed to Mobil 1 HSV Racing in 2017, the team that became Walkinshaw Andretti United a year later, and scored his breakthrough maiden Supercars win with the team in 2018 at Albert Park.
SLADE 2009 187 408 2 17 2
AGE 37 YEARS FROM HORNSBY, NEW SOUTH WALES LIVES GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND
@_timslade_
TIM Slade joins emerging squad PremiAir Racing for the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship after spending the past two seasons racing for the Blanchard Racing Team in a single-car Mustang team.
Slade began his career in open wheelers and he finished second in the 2006 Australian Formula Ford Championship after also dabbling in Formula 3.
Slade progressed to the Fujitsu Series (now known as Super2) in 2007 and the following year ran his own team to claim the Privateers Cup and a race and round win at Wakefield Park.
His persistence captured the attention
2012 BATHURST 12 HOUR RUNNER-UP @TimSladeRacing
2008 SUPERCARS PRIVATEERS CUP WINNER
2023 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
4th 4th 0 4th
2009 9 13 7th 31 0 14th
of Supercars team owner Paul Morris and, with the help of long-time backer James Rosenberg, Slade was rewarded with a full-time championship drive and he scored top 10 results alongside Morris in the Phillip Island and Bathurst endurance races.
A shift to Stone Brothers Racing in 2010 yielded further improvements, taking his first podium finish in 2011. A career best of fifth in points followed in 2012, before the Ford squad transformed into Erebus Motorsport for 2013.
He crossed the floor to Holden for the 2014 season, spending two years piloting Walkinshaw Racing Commodores then
joining Brad Jones Racing in 2016, the year he broke through and won both races at the Winton round.
He finished 2016 eighth in the championship, but the following years proved tougher and left Slade with little more than a handful of podium finishes to show for his toil.
Unable to land a full-time drive for 2020, Slade secured a co-drive with DJR Team Penske, helping Scott McLaughlin secure his third Supercars title at Bathurst.
He returned to the Supercars grid fulltime with the drive in the Blanchard Racing Team’s CoolDrive Mustang in 2021.
CHAZ
MOSTERT 2013 133 305 21 83 23
AGE 31 YEARS FROM MELBOURNE, VICTORIA LIVES GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND
2014, 2021 BATHURST 1000 WINNER 2017 SUPERCARS ENDURO CUP WINNER
@chazmozzie @chazmozzie
2023 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS
ONE of the Repco Supercars
Championship’s biggest stars returns to his roots in 2023 as Chaz Mostert gets back behind the wheel of a Ford.
After three seasons of racing Holdens, Walkinshaw Andretti United’s off-season manufacturer switch puts Mostert back aboard a ‘blue oval’ machine for the first time since 2019.
Mostert moved to WAU in 2020 after eight years with Tickford Racing along with his engineer Adam DeBorre and the 2021 season saw them deliver a breakthrough victory at Symmons Plains plus further wins at Hidden Valley and Bathurst, where he and
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
RACE WINS BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
1 2nd 2 2nd
2014 9 8 2nd 20 2 2nd
co-driver Lee Holdsworth took a dominant victory.
Mostert finished a career-best third in that year’s championship, a result he repeated in 2022. During his formative years he won the 2010 Australian Formula Ford Championship and made his Dunlop Series debut the same year with Miles Racing. He competed in the series with them full-time in 2011 but was then snapped up by Ford Performance Racing (now Tickford Racing), finishing third overall in the 2012 series.
He began 2013 driving for MW Motorsport in the Dunlop Series before receiving a ‘main game’ call-up to join Dick Johnson Racing
and broke through for his maiden race win at Queensland Raceway.
The FPR-contracted Mostert returned ‘home’ to drive its #6 Ford in 2014, when he took a famous last-lap Bathurst win with Paul Morris.
A year later Mostert was mounting a serious title challenge when a horror qualifying crash at Bathurst left him with a broken leg and wrist, sidelining him for the rest of the year.
He returned for the start of 2016 and proved a regular front-runner for the Ford team over the next four seasons before moving to WAU in 2020.
THE rise of Grove Racing in 2022 allowed David Reynolds to remind the Repco Supercars Championship of his reputation as one of its most formidable racers.
Reynolds’ career to date is packed with success, winning the Australian Formula Ford and Carrera Cup titles en route to Supercars.
His Supercars debut came in 2007 as Cameron McConville’s co-driver at PWR Racing, and he drove a Tony D’Alberto Racing-run Holden in the 2008 Fujitsu (Super2) Series before graduating to the ‘main game’ in 2009 with Walkinshaw Racing.
AGE 37 YEARS FROM ALBURY, NEW SOUTH WALES LIVES MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
2017 BATHURST 1000 WINNER
@daffidreynolds @davidreynoldsv8supercar
2007 PORSCHE CARRERA CUP AUSTRALIA CHAMPION
TASMANIA STATS
REYNOLDS 2007 188 413 7 40 16
BEST FINISH POLES PODIUMS BEST QUAL
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
3rd 1 2 2nd
2009 9 12 3rd 29 2 6th
Reduced to an endurance driver role for 2010, he returned to full-time duties with Kelly Racing in 2011 then jumped across to Rod Nash Racing to drive its Ford Performance Racing-prepared Falcon in 2012.
The move delivered instant results as Reynolds finished a close second in the 2012 Bathurst 1000 and built himself into a championship contender by 2015, finishing third in the points that season.
He moved to Erebus Motorsport amid its shift from Mercedes-Benz to Holden in 2016 and won at Bathurst alongside Luke Youlden the next year.
His relationship with the team soured during a rough 2020 campaign and they agreed to part ways at the end of the season, just one year into a much-publicised 10-year deal.
His 2021 move to what was then known as Kelly Grove Racing put him in familiar surroundings, having driven for then-Holden team Kelly Racing in 2011.
He finished on the podium at Sandown and led the resurgent Grove squad during 2022, delivering a pair of ARMOR ALL Pole Positions along with seven podium finishes that helped the team secure fifth in the Teams Championship.
GOLDING 2016 51 101 4th 0 3rd
AGE 27 YEARS FROM WARRAGUL, VICTORIA LIVES GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND
@jimmygolding
@JamesGoldingMotorsport
2022 S5000 AUSTRALIAN DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP RUNNER-UP 4th, 2016 DUNLOP SERIES
THE 2023 season marks James Golding’s first full-time Repco Supercars Championship campaign since 2019, completing a three-year fight to regain a seat in the ‘main game’.
A Formula Ford open wheeler racing graduate, he finished third in the 2014 national series and made his Dunlop Series debut at the end of that year in a Commodore after catching the eye of team owner Garry Rogers.
He became a full-time driver in the series in 2015 and enjoyed a solid season in 2016 in a Garry Rogers Motorsport-run Commodore, finishing fourth in the series
TASMANIA STATS
2023 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
15th 3rd 0 19th
2018 9 2 4th 4 0 13th
with four podium finishes and two race wins at Phillip Island and Sandown.
He also made his ‘main game’ debut as James Moffat’s co-driver in the #34 GRM Volvo S60 in that year’s Enduro Cup.
However his first race at Sandown ended abruptly when a punctured tyre pitched him into the wall at the Esses at the end of the back straight on the opening lap.
More enduro outings and solo wildcard starts followed in 2017 before Golding stepped up to a full-time seat with GRM in 2018, impressing with a strong drive at Bathurst that netted an eighth-place finish. However, GRM’s exit from Supercars
at the end of the 2019 season left Golding without a seat and at a career crossroads.
He kept his skills sharp in the openwheeler S5000 category, winning races in cars developed and run by GRM, and kept his hand in Supercars with impressive endurance co-drives with Team 18 in 2020 and 2021.
Golding was again scheduled to return to Team 18 for last year’s Repco Bathurst 1000 until a mid-season opportunity came up with PremiAir Racing, and a series of eyecatching performances across the second half of the season secured a full-time drive with the team for this year.
LE BROCQ 2015 81 179 1 2 2nd
AGE 30 YEARS FROM MELBOURNE, VICTORIA LIVES BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND
@jack_lebrocq @JackLeBrocq.com.au
2020 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP RACE 10 WINNER – SYDNEY
2012 AUSTRALIAN FORMULA FORD CHAMPION
JACK Le Brocq remains with Matt Stone Racing for the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship.
Le Brocq joined the Gold Coast-based squad last year following two years at Tickford Racing and two years with TEKNO Autosports.
His first season with MSR last year was highlighted by strong qualifying performances, including the team’s first frontrow start at Symmons Plains in Tasmania.
Coming up through the ranks of karts and Formula Vee, Le Brocq won the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2012. He then caught the attention of Supercars team
TASMANIA STATS
2023 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
5th 4th 0 2nd
2018 9 4 5th 10 0 10th
owner Betty Klimenko, who drafted him into her Erebus Motorsport squad’s academy to drive Formula 3 and GT machinery.
He made his Supercars Championship debut at Sandown in 2015 sharing one of the team’s E63 AMGs alongside Ash Walsh.
By that point Le Brocq had completed nearly two Dunlop Super2 Series seasons, debuting in 2014 in an Image Racing-run Falcon and then an MW Motorsport Ford in 2015.
Le Brocq moved to Tickford Racing for 2016 and finished runner-up in the series in addition to finishing fourth at Bathurst codriving a Falcon with Cam Waters.
In 2017 he moved back to MW Motorsport for the Super2 Series and became Nissan’s first Super2 race winner at Symmons Plains. He also competed as a wildcard entry in a selection of Supercars Championship events and served as Todd Kelly’s endurance codriver.
Le Brocq moved into the ‘main game’ with TEKNO Autosports in 2018, finishing the season as the best of five rookies, but a difficult second year led to a return to Tickford.
He won his first Supercars Championship race in 2020 at Sydney Motorsport Park at the wheel of one of the team’s Mustangs.
A MUST-HAVE FOR HRT FANS
The Holden Racing Team remains one of the most famous teams in Australian touring car and Supercars history and its Commodore race cars remain legendary. This special, limited edition book documents every HRT race car with previously unpublished photos, technical insight and stories from over 25 years of HRT history. Each copy is individually numbered, a must-have for your motorsport book collection!
HILL 2022 4 10 15th 0 12th
AGE 26 YEARS FROM CANBERRA, ACT LIVES CANBERRA, ACT
@cameron_hill11
@cameronhill11
2021 PORSCHE CARRERA CUP AUSTRALIA CHAMPION
2022 BATHURST 6 HOUR WINNER
CAMERON Hill joins the ranks of Dunlop Super2 Series graduates in 2023 stepping up to the Repco Supercars Championship with Matt Stone Racing at the wheel of a Camaro.
Hill won a host of state and national titles in karting before graduating to Formula Ford in 2014, where he romped to the Australian title a year later.
He continued his strong form into the Toyota 86 Racing Series, winning more races than any other driver in the class across 2016 and 2017 while posting a pair of top-three championship finishes.
His success led to an opportunity in
TASMANIA STATS
2023 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
2023 9 0 15th 0 0 24th N/A 12th 0 N/A
Porsche Carrera Cup Australia and he progressed each year. Hill finished ninth in the points in his rookie season, sixth in 2019 and became champion in 2021, including a streak of six race wins.
His rise through Australian motorsport, from junior open-wheel racing to Carrera Cup, came in cars entered and prepared by his own family-run team.
However, for his step up to Super2 last year, Hill landed a plum seat driving a Commodore for reigning champions Triple Eight Race Engineering.
Although his more experienced teammate Declan Fraser took out the title, Hill matched
him six-all across the year’s qualifying sessions and stood on the podium twice on his way to fifth in the final pointscore.
Hill also made his ‘main game’ debut in last year’s Repco Bathurst 1000 with PremiAir Racing sharing a Coca-Cola Commodore with Chris Pither, losing a potential top 10 finish with a late power steering problem.
He tasted Mount Panorama success earlier in 2022, winning the Bathurst 6 Hour production car race in a BMW that started from the tail of the grid, stealing the win with an electric late-race pass on Supercars regular Tim Slade.
RANDLE 2019 25 60 3rd 1 2nd
AGE 27 YEARS FROM MELBOURNE, VICTORIA LIVES MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
2020 DUNLOP SUPER2 SERIES WINNER
2018 MIKE KABLE YOUNG GUN AWARD WINNER
@thomasrandle @thomasrandle55
RESULTS were hard to come by for Thomas Randle in his rookie Repco Supercars Championship season in 2022 but there were plenty of moments that demonstrated his potential as a star of the future.
The Melbournian won the 2014 Australian Formula Ford series with five race victories and was runner-up in the 2015 Australian Formula 4 Championship.
He gathered further open-wheel experience overseas in British Formula 3 and a range of other open wheeler categories as well as LMP3 sportscar competition, and victory in New Zealand’s Toyota Racing Series in 2017.
2023 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
12th 8th 0 14th
2022 9 1 8th 3 0 20th
Randle stepped into Super2 with Tickford in a Falcon in 2018 and scored his first ARMOR ALL Pole Position and a podium finish in Perth before finishing third in the series in 2019 at the wheel of one of the team’s cars.
Randle also made his ‘main game’ debut with the Ford squad in 2019, driving at The Bend Motorsport Park as a wildcard before an Enduro Cup campaign with Lee Holdsworth that included a third-place finish in the Sandown 500.
A switch to MW Motorsport for the 2020 Super2 Series paid dividends as Randle romped to the title at the wheel of one of
its Nissan Altimas, finishing either first or second in all seven races of the COVIDshortened season.
The win capped a rollercoaster 12 months for Randle: he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in late 2019, had treatment throughout 2020 and completed his last round of chemotherapy on New Year’s Day in 2021.
After co-driving at Bathurst in 2020 for Brad Jones’ team, Randle returned to Tickford Racing in 2021 with a pair of top 10 finishes in a handful of wildcard Supercars appearances before gaining a full-time drive for 2022.
DECLAN
FRASER 2022 4 10 8th 0 16th
AGE 22 YEARS FROM CASTLEMAINE, VICTORIA LIVES MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
2022 DUNLOP SUPER2 SERIES WINNER 4th, 2019 TOYOTA 86 RACING SERIES
@declanfraserr @DeclanFraserRacing
2023 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS
DECLAN Fraser becomes the latest in a long line of Dunlop Super2 Series winners to graduate to the Repco Supercars Championship.
He secured his step up to the ‘main game’ for 2022 with a late deal to drive Tickford Racing’s #56 Tradie-backed Ford Mustang GT, becoming the third second-tier champ in the team’s driver line-up alongside Cam Waters and Thomas Randle.
The last driver to sort a place on the grid for this year, Fraser’s pathway to the ‘main game’ came via a plum seat with reigning champions Triple Eight in the 2022 Dunlop Super2 Series, in which he claimed four race
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
2023 9 0 10th 0 0 23rd N/A 16th 0 N/A
wins and a pair of round wins (including the Adelaide season finale) to secure the series win.
He also turned in an impressive debut drive at the Repco Bathurst 1000 aboard Triple Eight’s wildcard entry alongside Craig Lowndes, leading the race in the early stages before finishing eighth.
Fraser began his career in karts in 2008 before he graduated to car racing in 2017 in the competitive one-make Toyota 86 Racing Series.
His development accelerated during 2018 when he started receiving coaching from Paul Morris at the Norwell Motorplex in
Queensland, winning a race, scoring a pole position and finishing on the podium three times on his way to 12th place in the series points, then improving to fourth overall the following year.
Fraser graduated to Super3 in 2020 in what ultimately turned out to be a severely shortened two-round series, before moving up to Super2 in 2021 in an MW Motorsport Nissan Altima.
He was forced to sit out the final two rounds due to an accident at Bathurst not of his doing after a loose wheel forced him to crash and he finished eighth in the final points.
FEENEY 2020 18 45 3 6 2
AGE 20 YEARS FROM GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND LIVES GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND
@brocfeeney93
BROC Feeney repaid Triple Eight Race Engineering’s faith by ending his rookie Repco Supercars Championship campaign with a maiden race victory at the 2022 VALO Adelaide 500.
The 20-year-old began his first season in the premier class with big shoes to fill, driving the #88 Holden vacated by seventime Supercars Champion, and now Triple Eight Team Principal Jamie Whincup.
Feeney posted his first front row start and maiden podium finishes in the second round at Symmons Plains and scored 25 top 10 finishes, helping Triple Eight secure its 11th Teams Championship win.
2021 DUNLOP SUPER2 SERIES WINNER @brocfeeney93
2022 VALO ADELAIDE 500 WINNER
2023 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS RACE WINS RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
BEST FINISH POLES PODIUMS BEST QUAL
2nd 2 1 2nd
2022 9 1 2 3 3 5th
Following in the footsteps of father Paul Feeney, who raced on two wheels in the 1970s and ‘80s, Broc began racing motorbikes at the age of three.
He moved into karts aged nine and then cars at 15, becoming the youngest race winner in Toyota 86 Racing Series history before making the leap to Super3 and winning the series in 2019.
He graduated to the Dunlop Super2 Series with Tickford Racing in 2020 and finished seventh overall in the COVID-impacted season before a switch to Triple Eight for 2021.
He won the Super2 Series title off the
back of four wins, along with claiming the ARMOR ALL Super2 Pole Champion Award.
Prior to his full-time graduation last year, Feeney made his ‘main game’ debut at the 2020 Bathurst 1000, sharing a Tickford Mustang with James Courtney to a top 10 finish on the day of his 18th birthday.
He took on lead driver duties one year later aboard a Triple Eight-run wildcard entry at Bathurst with 2005 Supercars Champion Russell Ingall the same weekend he clinched the Super2 Series.
Last year he returned to Bathurst and finished fifth with Whincup co-driving their Red Bull Ampol Racing Commodore.
MACAULEY
JONES 2015 70 155 6th 0 8th
AGE 28 YEARS FROM ALBURY, NEW SOUTH WALES LIVES ALBURY, NEW SOUTH WALES
@officialmacauleyjones
2017 DUNLOP SUPER2 BATHURST 250 WINNER 4th, 2013 AUSTRALIAN FORMULA FORD CHAMPIONSHIP
MACAULEY Jones lines up for his fifth full-time Repco Supercars Championship season in 2023.
The son of team owner and former driver Brad, Jones moved into the ‘main game’ with a full-time drive in 2019 when he took over the reins of the Team CoolDrive Commodore entry run by BJR at the time for Tim Blanchard.
Jones rose through karting into Formula Ford and moved into the Dunlop Series with BJR midway through 2013. He started the first of four full-time seasons in the class the following year.
He finished 12th, ninth and seventh in his
TASMANIA STATS
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS BEST FINISH RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
BEST FINISH BEST QUAL PODIUMS BEST QUAL
16th 13th 0 17th
2019 9 3 7th 8 0 21st
first three campaigns in the series and then suffered a series of misfortunes that cost a breakthrough race win and a shot at the title in 2018, including two suspension failures in Townsville and contact from Garry Jacobson at The Chase on the last lap fighting for the win at Bathurst.
Although remaining without a race win in the Dunlop Super2 Series itself, Jones did take out the Bathurst 250-kilometre race when it was a non-points event in 2017.
Jones spent four years as an Enduro Cup co-driver for BJR from 2015 to 2018, finishing seventh alongside Nick Percat at Bathurst in 2018 and sixth on the Gold Coast
street circuit just weeks later.
His full-time Supercars career endured a false start at the Adelaide 500 in 2019 as a brake failure-induced crash in practice meant Jones missed the season-opening race.
Jones ended his rookie season 21st in the championship and improved to 19th in 2020 before finishing 23rd in 2021.
Remaining in the #96 BJR entry last year, Jones posted the best solo race finish of his Supercars career with a sixth place at Albert Park.
This year he is behind the wheel of the Pizza Hut #96 Camaro as part of BJR’s fourcar line-up.
AFTER enjoying one of the greatest years of his career in 2021, Shane van Gisbergen somehow managed to top it in 2022 to become a three-time Repco Supercars Champion and a two-time Repco Bathurst 1000 winner.
A young van Gisbergen learnt his craft at home in New Zealand in motocross, midgets and karts before taking the step up into car racing in open wheelers.
He was talent-spotted by Supercars team owners Ross and Jimmy Stone and brought to Australia to make his Supercars debut at just 17 years of age in a Stone Brothers Racing-run Team Kiwi Racing Ford Falcon at
SHANE
VAN GISBERGEN
AGE 33 YEARS FROM AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND LIVES BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND
2016, 2021, 2022 SUPERCARS CHAMPION
2020, 2022 BATHURST 1000 WINNER
Red Bull Ampol Racing
Oran Park Raceway in Sydney.
He scored his first Supercars Championship race win in 2011 during a five-year stint with SBR and looked lost to the category at the end of 2012 until doing a shock deal to drive a TEKNO Autosports Holden for 2013.
He won on debut with his new team in the Sunday race in Adelaide and finished runnerup to future teammate Jamie Whincup in the 2014 Supercars Championship.
He moved to Triple Eight Race Engineering in 2016 as teammate to Whincup and Craig Lowndes and won seven races on his way to his first Supercars
Championship win.
The Kiwi had to wait until 2020 to break through for his first Bathurst 1000 win and finished off the Gen2 Supercars era with two of the most dominant seasons in championship history across 2021 and 2022.
He romped to the 2021 title off the back of 14 wins and 23 podiums from 30 races, including a streak of seven victories to start the season.
He reset the record books in 2022 with 21 race wins across the season, including a second Bathurst 1000 triumph alongside Garth Tander at the wheel of the very same chassis they used to win Bathurst in 2020.
BRODIE
KOSTECKI 2019 32 80 2 13 3
AGE 25 YEARS FROM PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA LIVES GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND
3rd, 2021 REPCO BATHURST 1000 5th, 2018 DUNLOP SUPER2 SERIES
@brodiekostecki @brodiekostecki57
BRODIE Kostecki came into the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship season looking every inch that he’d be the next first-time race winner and he removed himself from that list with a breakthrough win recently at Albert Park.
Kostecki wasted no time dispelling any doubters of his full-time graduation to the ‘main game’ with Erebus Motorsport in 2021 by finishing ninth in the Supercars Championship.
He quickly claimed his first podium with a stunning second place finish in tricky conditions at Sandown, then took another in Sydney later in the year, while a
TASMANIA STATS
DEBUT RACES ROUNDS RACE WINS RACES PODIUMS CHAMP POS
BEST FINISH POLES PODIUMS BEST QUAL
4th 2 0 4th
2021 9 2 2 6 8 1st
swashbuckling final stint earnt him a Repco Bathurst 1000 podium finish with co-driver David Russell. That momentum rolled into last year, which Kostecki kicked off with his first career pole position in Sydney. He converted the front row start to a podium finish, then added another at The Bend before narrowly missing out on back-to-back podium finishes at Bathurst.
Kostecki and his family moved to America where he cut his teeth in the uncompromising world of Late Model stock car racing on short ovals, winning at the famous Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina at age 15 against future NASCAR
stars Ty Dillon and Bubba Wallace. He returned home and competed in the Dunlop Super2 Series from 2017. He broke through for his first Super2 Series race and round win at Sandown in 2018 and finished fifth in the final standings.
Kostecki sat out the bulk of the 2019 series as he and cousin Jake focused on a three-round Enduro Cup wildcard campaign.
He joined Eggleston Motorsport for the 2020 Super2 season and won the opening round in Adelaide but didn’t see out the COVID-affected season, concentrating on his Erebus co-drive at Bathurst alongside Anton De Pasquale.
SYMMONS PLAINS HITS A HALF CENTURY
This year marks the 50th round of Australian Touring Car/Supercars Championship racing at Symmons Plains. AARON NOONAN takes a look back at the event’s history and evolution …
THE Symmons Plains circuit holds a special place in Australian motorsport as one of only two venues in Tasmania to have played host to the Australian Touring Car Championship, now known as the Repco Supercars Championship.
The 2023 NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint marks the 50th time the championship has visited Symmons Plains, making the track second only to Sandown in Melbourne for the most rounds hosted.
The famous road course at Longford hosted the single race ATCC in 1962 that marked the championship’s first Tasmanian trip, however since 1969 it’s been the 2.4-kilometre Symmons Plains circuit outside of Launceston that has been the location for
a range of amazing battles and memorable races. That 1969 season was the first in which multiple races decided the year’s champion and the Tasmanian round was the final of five rounds in that year’s title chase.
Norm Beechey’s Monaro GTS 327 won the 40-lap race in a narrow finish, beating home Alan Hamilton’s Porsche by just three tenths of a second.
Beechey won the championship the following year in 1970 in his Monaro GTS 350, the last year that Symmons Plains hosted the season final.
From 1971 through to 1981 the round moved to the other end of the calendar and in each of those years the Australian Touring Car Championship kicked off at Symmons
Plains. This was the decade of V8 muscle cars and a period dominated by Allan Moffat, Colin Bond, John Harvey and Peter Brock, who shared 11 race wins between them in Tassie in the period from 1971 to 1980.
The 1977 round – held on the long weekend with one race on the Saturday and another on the Monday public holiday – was the first Symmons Plains ATCC round to feature a two race format. Both races were won by the dominant Falcon Hardtop of eventual champion Moffat.
The round sat in its usual March (or very late February) slot right though the 1980s and first half of the 1990s as local Group C touring cars gave way to the Group A international cars.
In fact, so dominant were the turbo charged cars they won every Symmons Plains race during the Group A era from 1985 to 1992 –the V8-powered Commodores and Mustangs and the smaller-engined BMWs just couldn’t keep up.
Robbie Francevic won in a Volvo in 1985 and 1986, George Fury won in a Nissan Skyline in 1987, Dick Johnson won in Sierras three years in a row from 1988 to 1990, Jim Richards won in a Nissan GT-R in 1991 and Glenn Seton took a pair of race wins in his Sierra in 1992.
The new V8 touring car rules were implemented in 1993 and that instantly led to a return to the classic Ford versus Holden battles.
Alan Jones won both races on his way to winning the ’93 round in his Glenn Seton Racing Falcon, famously picking up a $1000 fine for roughhouse driving when he spun Mark Skaife on the exit of the hairpin!
The switch to two race rounds introduced to the championship for 1992 remained for the following years until a three-race format
“SYMMONS PLAINS DROPPED OFF THE V8 SUPERCAR CALENDAR FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS AND RETURNED IN 2004“Dick Johnson and Peter Brock prepare to square off at Symmons Plains in 1982 (above). Kiwi Greg Murphy won the round in Tasmania in his first time there in a Supercar in 1997 (below) driving one of the Holden Racing Team’s Commodores.
Supercars Stick With Dunlop
Strong partnerships count: that’s why Dunlop has a proven track record of teaming up with road and race car manufacturers to deliver success. Tested on the toughest circuits, Stick With Dunlop for your daily drive.
dunloptyres.com.au @DunlopTyresANZ @dunlop_anz
was introduced for 1996, the year Craig Lowndes clean-swept the Tasmanian round for the Holden Racing Team.
This period was a super successful one for the factory Holden team – it won 11 of the 14 races held at Symmons Plains from 1995 to 1999.
The round moved to May for 1997 and was struck by wet weather though a return to February for the 1998 round brought improved weather. Another date change – to August for 1999 – saw a return to wet conditions.
Symmons Plains dropped off the V8 Supercar calendar for the next four years and returned in 2004, by which point the event had become a November fixture and a Tasmanian driver – Marcos Ambrose – was the reigning champion driving a Falcon for Stone Brothers Racing.
The round remained in that late-year calendar slot bar one year (2009, held in May) until 2012 when it moved back to April and the round has remained in March or April ever since until this year’s May event.
Just as the HRT enjoyed success in the late 1990s, Triple Eight have proven to be the modern-day conquerors of Symmons Plains.
The Queensland-based team has won 25 of the 37 championship races held there since its first win in Tassie in 2007.
However, the venue has seen some notable wins by other teams, including Todd Kelly’s win in the wet for Larry Perkins’ team in 2008, a 2013 clean sweep of wins by Brad Jones Racing and Will Davison’s win for TEKNO Autosports in the Sunday race in 2016.
2023 NED WHISKY TASMANIA SUPERSPRINT
THIS TIME LAST YEAR
A three-peat, wall-smashing race stoppage, breakthrough podium and a taste of the future were all on offer at Symmons Plains in 2022 …
SVG’S CLEAN SWEEP
Reigning champion Shane van Gisbergen was in sublime form at Symmons Plains last year. He was simply too strong for the field and won all three races - one on Saturday and two on the Sunday. His weekend points haul of 310 points came from 100 points per race win and five bonus points in two of the three races for setting the fastest lap. SVG’s clean sweep in Tassie in 2022 was the first time since Garth Tander in 2005 that a driver had cleanswept the wins in a three-race format at Symmons Plains.
POLE HONOURS SHARED
Shane van Gisbergen may have won all three races at Symmons Plains last year, but he didn’t have it all his own way with the ARMOR ALL Pole Position Award cheques. These were split between Cam Waters (who had also taken two poles in Tasmania in 2021), van Gisbergen and Wil Davison. Waters’ Monster Energy Racing Mustang finished third in the Saturday race in which he had started from pole, while Davison’s Shell V-Power Mustang finished second in the final race of the weekend after starting from pole. It was his first pole position at Symmons Plains, his first of 2022 and his 20th career pole in Supercars.
CRASH, SMASH, STOPPAGE
Truck Assist Racing’s Jack Le Brocq had a topsy-turvy run in Tasmania in 2022. Contact with Andre Heimgartner at Turn 6 in the first Sunday race sent both cars into the tyre wall. Officials were forced to stop the race to repair the barrier, causing a delay of just over 15 minutes. Le Brocq’s crew repaired his Commodore in time for the last race, for which he’d qualified a career-best second and, though he led the first lap, he locked his brakes at the hairpin on Lap 2 and dropped to the rear, eventually finishing 23rd. It was a case of what could have been ...
GEN3 ON TRACK
A couple of Supercars Champions were let loose at Symmons Plains last year aboard the prototype Gen3 Camaro and Mustang, giving Tasmanian race fans a taste of the future of Supercars racing. Two-time Supercars Champ and Tassie favourite Marcos Ambrose slid behind the wheel of the Mustang, while 2007 Supercars Champion Garth Tander turned laps at the helm of the Camaro. With three championships, 85 championship race wins and 789 championship race starts between them, that’s a lot of experience!
BROC’S BREAKTHROUGH
Seven-time Supercars Champion Jamie Whincup left big boots to fill in the #88 Red Bull Ampol Racing entry for rookie Broc Feeney. But the young Gold Coaster showed just why he was signed by Triple Eight Race Engineering at Symmons Plains last year, as he delivered his first Repco Supercars Championship podium finish. Feeney qualified on the front row alongside teammate Shane van Gisbergen for the first Sunday race and converted it into a second-place finish at the end of 44 laps of racing.
THE MONSTER MAN
Mildura racer Cam Waters was again denied his first Symmons Plains Supercars race win in 2022. He took pole for the 44-lap race on Saturday and led the first 16 laps, but just couldn’t stop Shane van Gisbergen from sweeping by to take the lead on lap 17. The Ford pilot ended up finishing third behind van Gisbergen and Will Davison. Waters had also taken two Tassie poles in 2021 and been unable to convert them into wins – he finished fourth in both of those races. As Waters’ Tickford Racing team departed Symmons Plains last year it marked 10 years since their last win there – in 2012 with Will Davison in the Saturday race when the team was known as Ford Performance Racing.
BUILT FOR TOMORROW, DELIVERING TODAY.
THAT’S THE HINO
TRUST HINO TO BRING YOU HOME.
Why choose Hino to be your reliable transport solution provider? Our commitment begins by drawing on 80 years of design innovation and experience globally. We build every new model on the time-honoured principles of Quality, Durability and Reliability. We continue to set the standards for safety, performance, efficiency, and comfort, while harnessing technology that can help make sustainability a reality. We then promise to be your long term business partner through Hino Advantage, by offering a suite of business solutions aimed at reducing costs and minimising downtime. So, no matter how you’re driving Australia forward, we have the heritage, ongoing support, and next-generation of transport solutions available to help bring you home. You can trust Hino to deliver, now and into the future. Visit hino.com.au
2023 NED WHISKY TASMANIA SUPERSPRINT
THE WINNERS
Some of the biggest names in Supercars and Australian touring cars have conquered the Tasmania round. AARON NOONAN takes a look at
most successful drivers at Symmons Plains Raceway
13 RACE WINS
Jamie Whincup
First Win – 2007, Last Win – 2021
The seven-time Supercars Champion made his first Symmons Plains championship appearance in 2005 at the wheel of one of Tasman Motorsport’s Commodores. He joined Triple Eight the following year and didn’t look back. His first Tasmanian win came in 2007 and he backed it up with another win in the final race of the day to seal the overall round victory. He ended up with 13 race wins at Symmons Plains by the time he called a close to his full-time Supercars career in 2021, the year he scored his 13th and final win on the Tasmanian circuit. Whincup started from pole position for six of his victories; the last of those came in 2014.
10 RACE WINS
Craig Lowndes
First Win – 1996, Last Win – 2018
As with his long-time Triple Eight teammate Whincup, Craig Lowndes also won a race at Symmons Plains in his final full-time season of racing Supercars. He scored victory from pole position in 2018, some 22 years on from his first-time racing in the championship in Tasmania. On that occasion he clean swept all three races in what turned out to be a championship-winning season for he and the Holden Racing Team. All of Lowndes’ 10 Symmons Plains race wins came at the wheel of Holden Commodores; he didn’t win a race there during his time racing Ford Falcons at the circuit. His last race win in Tasmania for HRT came in 1998 and he had to wait 12 years until his next win – by then driving for Triple Eight – in 2010.
the
...
7 RACE WINS
First Win – 1974, Last Win – 1997
Peter Brock made his first Symmons Plains Australian Touring Car Championship appearance in 1973 and he returned the following year to take victory. His XU-1 Torana beat Allan Moffat’s Falcon by a lap in the 1974 championship opener. For a period from 1978 onwards his Symmons Plains wins then flowed on even years. He won in 1978 in a Torana A9X, 1980 for the racing debut of the VB Commodore, 1982 in a VC Commodore and 1984 in a VH Commodore. Forced to wait another 11 years before his next Tasmanian victory, Brock made it count given his win in Race 2 in 1995 came on his 50th birthday. He won in the rain in Race 1 in 1997, his last year as a full-time driver in the championship.
7 RACE WINS
First Win – 2005, Last Win – 2009
The 2007 Supercars Champion did all his winning at Symmons Plains in a five-year stretch. He clean swept the 2005 round in a HSV Dealer Team Commodore and won all three races to win the overall round. Tander returned the following year and added two more race wins by claiming Races 2 and 3. The West Australian carried on the form into 2007 and added another race win in Race 1 of that round before returning to top the podium in the opening race in 2009, by which time he’d swapped across to the Holden Racing Team. Five of Tander’s seven wins in Tasmania came after starting on pole position.
7 RACE WINS
First Win – 2016, Last Win – 2022
The Kiwi has won some memorable races at Symmons Plains, but not all of them have been for the right reasons. His first win in Tasmania in 2016 marked a special milestone – it was the 500th ATCC/ Supercars Championship for Holden – and van Gisbergen’s first win for Triple Eight. He won again the following year in the Saturday race; however, it was delayed by a massive multi-car crash and results were declared after just four laps and a Safety Car finish. It remains the shortest championship race in history. Since then, ‘SVG’ has won in the last three times that Supercars have headed to Tasmania with one win in 2019, another in 2021 and a clean sweep of all three races last year.
5 RACE WINS
First Win – 1971, Last Win – 1977
The Ford racing legend scored his first Symmons Plains ATCC race win in the opening round of 1971, taking his famous Coca-Cola TransAm Mustang to victory. He backed it up in 1972 and won the championship-opener in Tasmania again in the famous red muscle car. A change to Group C regulations for 1973 didn’t slow him down and he won again, though behind the wheel of a Falcon GTHO Phase III. Moffat’s final two Tasmanian race wins came in the two-race round of 1977, the dominant season that he and teammate Colin Bond finished 1-2 in the championship and in the Bathurst 1000. Moffat’s move to Mazda didn’t quite generate him another Tassie win and he finished second in an RX-7 to Allan Grice in 1983.
4 RACE WINS
First Win – 1994, Last Win – 1999
Mark Skaife was runner-up at Symmons Plains while driving for Nissan in 1991 and 1992 and it took until 1994 – by which time he was driving a Commodore for Gibson Motorsport – for his first Tasmanian victory. Skaife won both races in Tasmania in 1994 to clinch the overall round win and set up what became his second Australian Touring Car Championship victory. It took another five years for Skaife to win at Symmons Plains; in 1999 he won two of the three races for the Holden Racing Team to clinch the overall round win.
4 RACE WINS
First Win – 1981, Last Win – 1990
Dick Johnson’s first Symmons Plains win in 1981 came in the debut of the new Tru-Blu Falcon XD that replaced the car destroyed by the accident with a rock at Bathurst the previous year. But that win was the only time the Ford fan favourite won a race at the Tasmanian round behind the wheel of a V8 Falcon. The rest of his Symmons Plains wins came in turbocharged Shell Sierras. Johnson scored a trio of wins across 1988, 1989 and 1990 in the Apple Isle. He won in 1981 and 1988 from pole position. Johnson made his last start as a driver at Symmons Plains in 1999.
SEN BREAKFAST
S E T T I N G T H E
S P O R T I N G A G E N D A
DOWNLOAD THE SEN APP
3 RACE WINS
First Win – 1992, Last Win – 1998
The two-time Australian Touring Car Champion first raced at Symmons Plains during his days with Fred Gibson’s Nissan team in 1987, and it took him five years before he finally won a race in Tasmania. On that occasion, in 1992, he won both races to seal the overall round victory in the final year of the turbocharged Group A cars. Seton next won in Tasmania in 1998, steering his Ford Credit-backed Falcon EL to victory in the first of three races held at that round.
3 RACE WINS
First Win – 2013, Last Win - 2017
Symmons Plains holds a special place in the Kiwi’s Supercars career. It’s the site of his first podium finish in 2009 at the wheel of a Paul Cruickshank Racing Falcon and it’s also where he scored his first Supercars Championship race win – in 2013 – driving for Brad Jones Racing. Coulthard won two races in that year’s event, winning each time from second place on the grid. He won again in the 76-lap Sunday race in 2017, leading home DJR Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin in a 1-2 finish. It was the first Supercars win for the team since Penske’s buy-in a few years earlier and the first of eight race wins for Coulthard during his time with the team.
3 RACE WINS
First Win – 1997, Last Win – 1999
Wet weather was the theme for the Kiwi when he scored his wins at Symmons Plains. Murphy won Races 2 and 3 in terrible wet conditions in 1997 while driving for the Holden Racing Team and it was wet again two years later when he won the first race in 1999 at the wheel of Gibson Motorsport’s Wynn’s-backed VT Commodore. The Kiwi made 10 round starts in Tasmania, the last coming in a Pepsi Max Crew-backed Kelly Racing Commodore in 2011. He missed the 2012 round – his last year as a full-time V8 Supercars driver – due to a back injury.
Century Batteries has been designing and building their iconic blue and yellow batteries right here in Australia since 1928. For over 95 years we've been building them from the ground up to better suit Australia’s extreme climate and harsh conditions.
13 22 87 | centurybatteries.com.au |
A MATTER OF NUMBERS
There’s a range of interesting statistics pertaining to this year’s NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint and Repco Supercars Championship. AARON NOONAN steps you through some numbers that matter heading into the Tasmanian round of the championship …
the
for the most ATCC/Supercars Championship podium finishes at the Tasmanian track without a win – six. All his podium appearances at the track came during his time with Walkinshaw Racing/Walkinshaw Andretti United. He scored one in 2013, two in 2014, two in 2015 and his most recent in 2018. His best result remains second in the first race in 2014.
Seven-time Supercars Champion Jamie Whincup holds the record for most race wins at Symmons Plains at 13. His first came back in 2007 in Race 2 at the wheel of one of Triple Eight’s Vodafonebacked Falcons. He scored a follow up win in Race 3 that day and added further wins in 2008 (two), 2009, 2011 (two), 2012, 2014 (two), 2015, 2018 and 2021, his last year as a full-time driver in the championship.
No driver has scored more Symmons Plains championship pole positions than Peter Brock. The Aussie racing legend took eight poles during his career in Tasmania, a mark that is yet to be beaten by the current Supercars stars, even with the multiple pole positions that are on offer per round in the modern era. Brock’s first Symmons Plains pole was in 1973 and his last was in 1997. He also claimed pole in 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1989 and 1990.
The youngest-ever driver to compete in a Symmons Plains Supercars Championship round remains Alex Rullo, who was 16 years and 297 days when he drove an LD Motorsport Commodore in 2017. He pipped previous record holder Paul Dumbrell to the mark –Dumbrell was 16 years and 341 days when he made his championship debut in Tasmania as a schoolboy back in 1999 in a John Faulkner Racing-run VS Commodore.
DEWALT Racing Camaro driver Mark Winterbottom celebrates his 42nd birthday on the Saturday of the NED Whisky Perth SuperSprint. Only four drivers have won an ATCC/Supercars Championship race on their birthday and all of them – Peter Brock, Craig Lowndes, Todd Kelly, Chaz Mostert –were driving for the Holden Racing Team and the banner under which that same team operates now, Walkinshaw Andretti United.
The last race on Sunday at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint marks the 300th Supercars Championship race for Nick Percat. The #2 Mobil 1 NTI Mustang driver becomes the 31st driver to start 300 championship races. He finished on the podium in each of his 100th and 200th races at Bathurst (in 2016) and Sydney Motorsport Park (in 2020) respectively.
The NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint will mark a special career milestone for Kiwi Andre Heimgartner, who starts his 100th championship round. The R&J Batteries Camaro driver made his debut as a wildcard in a Super Black Racing Falcon at the 2014 Bathurst 1000. He becomes just the 51st driver to achieve the 100 round starts milestone. His best race finish in Tasmania of eighth came in 2015 in a Super Black Racing Falcon, a result he matched last year aboard Brad Jones Racing’s #8 Commodore.
Motorsport Communications Specialists.
D2N – Technology Solutions experience in Motorsport started back in the early 1990’s when our Managing Director Jason Owen was working for the Seven Network as a broadcast engineer on the Australian Touring Car Championships. Since then, we have designed and delivered well over 250 Motorsport solutions across a number of racing categories including, Supercars, Porsche Carrera Cup, GT Championship, Touring Car Masters, and TCR Australia.
FOR THE DRIVER, OUR PRODUCTS INCLUDE.
> Custom earmolds
> Helmet kits and adaptors
> Two Way Radios
FOR TEAMS, WE OFFER:
> Custom headsets
> Intercom solutions
> Two Way Radio solutions
> ACMA licence solutions
> Wiring looms, antennas and RF cabling
All of our Motorsport solutions are built up from a modular approach so drivers, teams, and categories can take advantage of the different products and services we offer. We offer a premium service using the world’s best brands along with our own range of wring looms, helmet kits and the like.
sales.aus@d2n.com.au
02 9837 6748
www.d2n.com.au
SLEUTHING THE CHAMPIONSHIP’S
STAR PERFORMERS
The 2023 season continues Australia’s long-standing history of touring car and Supercars racing. V8 Sleuth’s AARON NOONAN has tracked the main categories of success across the history of the Australian Touring Car Championship and the Repco Supercars Championship – here’s where they all sit in the history books
MOST ROUND STARTS
PORSCHES PUT THE SPRINT INTO TASMANIA
The Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge is a hot bed of fast, young, talented racers.
RICHARD CRAILL profiles the category and
who
to watch out for in Tasmania for this round …
IT WILL be well worth paying attention to the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia races at Symmons Plains this weekend.
Not just because it will be excellent, competitive racing, but because you never know where the young guns dicing at the pointy end of this field are going to end up.
The series rolls into Tasmania for the second round of the 2023 championship with arguably its best ever crop of would-be champion drivers.
If you’re new to one-make Porsche racing, Michelin Sprint Challenge is to Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup what the Dunlop Super2 Series is to the Repco Supercars Championship.
It’s the stepping stone – the place where young talent learn their craft before stepping up to the big time.
Sprint Challenge has produced some incredible talent as the first rung on the ‘Porsche Pyramid’ climb to potential international stardom: the likes of Matt Campbell, Jaxon Evans and more recently, Harri Jones, are all graduates.
Sprint Challenge utilises the previousgeneration Carrera Cup cars and the same class structure, with Professional and ProAm categories setting up races within the races themselves. You’ll recognise the team names, too: Sonic, McElrea, TekworkX, Earl Bamber Motorsport, ASM and other regulars all feature here as they do in Carrera Cup.
So, who to watch? Talented Kiwi teenager Marco Giltrap won the opening round at Phillip Island back in February, adding another great chapter to one of New Zealand motorsport’s most famous surnames.
Speaking of names, Ronan Murphy – son of Supercars legend Greg – was a round one podium contender, while karting graduate Aron Shields scored his first race win at Phillip Island, in what is just his second year of circuit racing. Harrison Goodman was also on the podium aboard his Sonic machine, the latter pair scoring one back for the Aussies against the Kiwi charge.
Young stars like Zac Stichbury, Hamish Fitzsimmons, Marcos Flack, Lochie Bloxsom and Caleb Sumich all add to the mix and that’s before you get to the Pro-Am battles, too.
There’s three Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia races this weekend at Symmons Plains – don’t look away: you never know where the next big thing is going to come from.
PORSCHE MICHELIN SPRINT CHALLENGE
ENTRY LIST
Note: Entry details subject to change after deadline for this program had closed.
LINE THEM UP AND LET THEM LOOSE!
Aussie Racing Cars are pint-sized but their drivers know how to turn on a great race. AARON NOONAN previews the action …
PACK of angry ants or pint-sized racers, call them what you will, but the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series is a must-see part of the support category action at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.
The motorcycle-engined race cars always deliver close racing, and they know their way around the 2.4-kilometre Symmons Plains circuit as well given the category has turned on some great racing in the Apple Isle over the years.
The little Aussie Racing Cars will look a little different when they head out onto the track in Tasmania this year too, with all cars running high rear aero wings for the first time at Symmons Plains.
The high aero wings are expected to provide plenty of great action with more tight pack racing and more slipstream drafting by the cars up and down the long straights in Tassie.
This weekend’s Symmons Plains event is the third round of the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series.
Round one supported the Repco Supercars Championship at the Thrifty Newcastle 500 and round two at Queensland Raceway supported the recent Australian Superbike Championship round.
The 2018 Aussie Racing Cars champion, Joel Heinrich leads the points after the completion of two rounds heading into Tasmania.
Last year’s champion Joshua Anderson sits equal second in the series with Reece Chapman, Kody Garland and Anthony Di Mauro filling out the top five.
Anderson and Chapman finished second and third in last year’s Aussie Racing Cars round in Tasmania, which was won by Tom Hayman.
This year’s Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series will be held over six rounds with four held at Repco Supercars Championship events.
They’ll also be seen this year with the Repco Supercars Championship at the Betr Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley in June and then again at the NTI Townsville 500 in July.
BATTERY WORLD AUSSIE RACING CARS SUPER SERIES
ENTRY LIST
BATTERY WORLD AUSSIE RACING CARS SUPER SERIES
Note: Entry details subject to change after deadline for this program had closed.
THE STORY OF A HALL OF FAMER
‘Seto’ tells the story of Supercars Hall of Famer Glenn Seton and his amazing motorsport career as champion driver and team owner. A two-time Australian Touring Car Champion, Seton has dedicated his life to racing and opens up on the highs and lows of a lifetime behind the wheel. This is a must-have motorsport book!
FORMULA FORD RETURNS TO TASSIE
TAKE a look at the grid of drivers in Supercars in this year’s NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint this weekend and you’ll quickly run out of fingers counting up the number of stars that have cut their teeth in the ever-popular Formula Ford open wheeler category.
Nine drivers in this year’s field of 25 Supercars pilots – Will Davison, David Reynolds, Nick Percat, Chaz Mostert, Cam Waters, Jack Le Brocq, Anton De Pasquale, Thomas Randle and Cameron Hill – have won the national Formula Ford crown on their pathway to making it in the ‘main game’.
The nursery of future racing stars returns to Symmons Plains this weekend for its third round of the 2023 Australian Formula Ford Series and its only appearance alongside the Repco Supercars Championship for the year.
And there’s a pack of hungry young racers keen to add their names to the list of Formula Ford national champions and follow in their wheel tracks.
With two rounds complete of this year’s seven round national series, Sonic Motor Racing young gun Matt Hillyer leads the way by 21 points over Zak Lobko coming into the Tasmanian round. Connor Somers sits third in the title chase, another 23 points back.
Formula Ford racing at Symmons Plains has traditionally been fantastic as the long straights allow for plenty of slipstreaming opportunities for the little open wheelers.
There’s a field of 18 cars entered for this weekend’s round of the series, more than enough of the 1.6-litre, four-cylinder, Ford ‘Duratec’-powered racers to make for some entertaining racing on the Apple Isle.
This year’s Australian Formula Ford Series is being held over seven rounds with its remaining rounds held across the Shannons SpeedSeries, Victorian State Championship and South Australian State Championship events.
It’s been going strong for over 50 years and now the Australian Formula Ford Series is coming back to race at Symmons Plains, as AARON NOONAN reports …
2023 AUSTRALIAN FORMULA FORD SERIES
ENTRY LIST
AUSTRALIAN FORMULA FORD SERIES
Note: Entry details subject to change after deadline for this program had closed.
2023 NED WHISKY TASMANIA SUPERSPRINT
EVENT OFFICIALS
OFFICIALS OF THE EVENT
National Sporting Authority
Promoter
Organiser
Motorsport Australia
V8 Supercars Australia Pty Ltd
V8 Supercars Australia Pty Ltd
Organising Committee Matt Gegg, Phil Shaw, Donald Potter, Melanie Beets, Kimberly Hughes
SUPERCARS OFFICIALS
VCS Stewards
VCS Race Director
VCS Deputy Race Director
Clerk of the Course
Secretary of the Event
Chris McMahon (Chair)
Brad Tubb
Steve Lisk
James Taylor
David Mori
James Delzoppo
Melanie Beets
Kimberly Hughes
Medical Delegate Dr Carl Le
Supercars Head of Motorsport
Adrian Burgess
Starter Paul Martin
Driving Standards Advisor
Race Control Operations
SUPPORT EVENT OFFICIALS
Deputy Clerk of the Course
Deputy Secretary of the Event
Support Category Stewards
Chief of Communications
Race Control Communicator/Scribes
Report Processing Unit
Craig Baird
James Delzoppo
Timing Co-ordinator
Recovery Co-ordinator
Safety Car Driver
Safety Car Communicator
Media Manager
Ian Leech
Alistair Walker
Jason Routley
Greg Mays
Paul Glover
Kevin Knight
Janelle Orrock
Wayne Richards
John Palmer
Karen Baker
Simon Roland
Bronwyn Zuber
Clare Schafer
David Waldron
Geogie Addison
Chris Potter
Chief Timekeeper TBC
Course Car Marshal TBC
Support Safety Car Driver
Adam Meredith
Support Safety Car Observer Greg May
Chief Starter
Chief Scrutineer
Craig Milich
Wayne Nichols
Chief Flag Marshal Barry Turner
Deputy Chief Flag Marshal
Chief of Recovery and Rescue
Chris Schier
Michael Cooper
Deputy Chief of Recovery and Rescue Ken Claridge
Chief Fire Marshal Iain Ingles
Deputy Chief Fire Marshal
Peter Walker
Chief Pit Lane & Grid Marshal
Adrian Bond
Deputy Chief Pit Lane & Grid Marshal Greg De Vries
Chief Paddock Marshal
Chief Supply & Radios
Stephen Lowe
Tony Mole
Chief Medical Officer Dr Kaaren Binns Medical Coordinator
Doug Williams
2023 NED WHISKY TASMANIA SUPERSPRINT
VOLUNTEERS
Georgie Addison
Hayden Applebee
Dave Baker
Karen Baker
Geoffrey Bakes
Shaun Barnard
Melanie Beets
Liana Bianchin
Kaaren Binns
Adrian Bond
Jenny Bond
Natalie Borg
Steven Bowen
Gary Brown
Harold Burgess
Leon Butt
Steve Caplice
Brett Carhart
Stephen Cashion
Nigel Chong
Kenneth Claridge
Wayne Clark
Michael Cobb
Alison Cook
Geoff Cook
Adrian Cooper
Kevin Cooper
Michael Cooper
Vanessa Cooper
David Cox
Sarah Craggs
Nancy Davis
Emily de Longte
Greg De Vries
Heather Dean
Phillip Dean
Mark Direen
Paul Dobson
Matthew Evans
Braydan Flannery
Ross Girvan
Wayne Goleby
Scott Goodman
Braden Groves
Leanne Hall
Peter Hillier
Aleisha Hindrum
Andrew Hindrum
Mel Hodgetts
Kimberly Hughes
Matt Hutchings
Al Hutton
Stephanie Hutton
Kevin Huxley
Shaun Huxley
Iain Ingles
Matthew Izard
Krystian Jackson
Richard Johns
Emma Keith
Kevin Knight
Erin Lane
Jennifer Lemon
Jessica Leonard
Adam Lewis
Scott Long
Katrina Lowe
Stephen Lowe
Jo Lynch
Sharmaine Mansfield
David Marshall
Gregory Mays
Joshua McDonald
Leanne Mcdonald
Robert McDonald
Chris Mcilwrath
Peter McKinnon
Tasharni McLean-Lowe
Chris McMahon
Adam Meredith
Emma Metcalfe
Brock Migues
Craig Milich
Tony Mole
Peter Monshing
Brad Moras
David Mori
Terry Morice
Malcolm Moss
Peter Murphy
Gavin Newman
Sophie Nichols
Wayne Nichols
Dale Nicolson
Janelle Orrock
John Palmer
Allan Panton
Trevor Parker
Stacey Paynter
Richard Pearce
Chris Polley
David Prentice
Wayne Richards
Amanda Rittman
Ethan Roberts
Paul Roberts
Simon Roland
David Rose
David Ross
Callie Rousell
Matt Rowbottom
Garry Rusden
Anthony Ryder
Claire Schafer
Chris Schier
James Schier
Jackie Schlein
Adam Scott
Stefanie Shears
Rob Sheppard
Vawn Smith
Deborah Squires
Kai Stephens
Glenn Stevens
Paul Sweet
James Taylor
Ed ten Broeke
Robert Thiry
Russell Thompson
Robyn Thomson
Sean Tiernan
Bradle Tubb
Barry Turner
David Waldron
Ashley Walker
Peter Walker
Jordan Wallis
Courtney Walsh
Rodney Watters
Jonty Webb
Ric Weeks
Aaron Wells
Steve Westgate
Adine Whitcombe
Kristian Whiteman
Douglas Williams
Bailey Wright
Geordie Wright
Ian Young
Madison Zoric
Bronwyn Zuber
CHAMPIONSHIP MAJOR PARTNER
BROADCAST PARTNERS
CHAMPIONSHIP PARTNERS
GOVERNMENT PARTNER
MEDIA PARTNERS
2023CALENDAR
ROUND 01
Thrifty Newcastle 500 Newcastle Street Circuit, NSW
ROUND 02
Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint
Formula 1® Rolex Australian Grand Prix
Albert Park, VIC
ROUND 03
Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint CARCO.com.au Raceway, Neerabup, WA
ROUND 04
NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint
Symmons Plains Raceway, TAS
16 - 18 JUNE
Betr Darwin Triple Crown Hidden Valley Raceway, NT
7 - 9 JULY
NTI Townsville 500 Reid Park, QLD
28 - 30 JULY
Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW
18 - 20 AUGUST
OTR SuperSprint
The Bend Motorsport Park, SA
15 - 17 SEPTEMBER ROUND 09
Penrite Oil Sandown 500 Sandown Raceway, VIC
5 - 8 OCTOBER
Repco Bathurst 1000
Mount Panorama, NSW
27 - 29 OCTOBER ROUND
Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500
Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, QLD
23 - 26 NOVEMBER
VALO Adelaide 500 Adelaide Street Circuit, SA
A new exciting era of the Repco Supercars Championship begins this year with the introduction of brand new Gen3-specification Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang race cars as the battle to become champion roars back into life across the best race tracks and events in Australia.
‘Gentleman Jim’ tells the story of Australasian legend Jim Richards’ amazing career. The New Zealand native moved to Australia in the mid-1970s and has won in everything on four wheels. From Mustangs to Porsches, BMWs to Volvos and Bathurst Toranas to NASCARs, he’s done it all. This is one book that you can’t miss!