MOTORSPORT: Crunch-time for Penske

It’s the moment of truth for DJR Team Penske (DJRTP) this weekend in Tasmania at the second round of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.

After a promising opening for the Shell V-Power Ford Falcons at the Clipsal 500 and domination of the non-championship F1 GP support races, the team owned by US motor racing mogul Roger Penske arrives at one of its 2016 bogey tracks, Symmons Plains.

Perform well here and the restructure (headlined by the recruitment of category heavyweight Triple Eight Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s (T8) engineering guru, Ludo Lacroix, and the big bucks investment in driver Scott McLaughlin) will definitely be seen to be paying off. But struggle on the new Dunlop super-soft tyres, at a circuit which puts maximum value on power-down and braking performance, and it will be apparent we were reading too much into the team’s early season form.

There’s no doubt category fans are hoping the former scenario plays out, otherwise T8 duo Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup may have little serious opposition for the two wins on offer.

While McLaughlin commanded the pre-season attention, it’s been his team-mate Fabian Coulthard (in his second year at DJRTP) who has led the way, winning twice at the AGP
and running second in the championship to defending titleholder, van Gisbergen.

At 34, Kiwi Coulthard has endured a long apprenticeship to reach superstar status in the category.

“I have got an opportunity and I need to make the most of it,” he said.

“Everything that’s happened in the past, it’s been a lot of learning… But I think I have come out the other side of that and that has made me stronger, so that makes driving a good car that little bit easier because you have done the hard work to get there,” Coulthard stated.

Symmons Plains is the place where he first came to real prominence in Supercars, scoring his first podium in 2009 and first win in 2013. That gives him personal confidence for the weekend, but he admits he won’t be sure what calibre weapon he will be deploying until after the opening practice session today (Friday).

“We just need to get through that and see how the car is and see what it is going to perform like and then hopefully by then we will have a good idea of how the weekend is going to go and how the rest of the year is going to pan out.

“Until we get there and do a few laps I feel a little bit unsure, but I can only talk on what we have done at the start of this year. Some of the areas where we have been strong [this year] have been some of our weaknesses of last year. So hopefully it won’t be too bad when we get to Tassie.”

There will be others apart from DJRTP looking for strong Tassie form.

Whincup had a wretched opener at the Clipsal but showed better form at Albert Park. The winningest driver at this circuit in Supercars will be keen to keep the graph pointed in the right direction.

So will his T8 team-mate Craig Lowndes in the Team Vortex Commodore. Lowndes has a good record at Symmons Plains but has logged a poor start to the season with his new engineer John ‘Irish’ McGregor. A strong run is needed for this pairing to boost their confidence.

The 2015 Supercars champion Mark Winterbottom was a star in Tassie last year and will be desperate to kick-start his season in his recalcitrant Prodrive Falcon. His young-gun team-mates Chaz Mostert and Cam Waters have outshone him so far, the former starting to show the sort of winning form that made him a star in 2015 before his Bathurst crash.

But the truth is almost everyone in the field has reason to look for improved form in Tasmania. Brad Jones Racing needs to convert potential to results, Nissan Motorsport needs some good news after this week’s announcement of the axing of Altima and Garry Roger Motorsport will relish the track time to further unlock its new Commodores.

Meanwhile, here’s what to watch out for this weekend:

>> The Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint comprise the third and fourth races of the 2017 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. It includes practice on Friday, qualifying and one 125km race on Saturday and qualifying and a 200km race on Sunday.

>> The 200km race requires a minimum 120 litre fuel drop, which effectively means two fuel stops.

>> All qualifying and racing will be conducted on the new-construction Dunlop super-soft tyre, placing lap records under immediate threat.

>> The anti-clockwise 2.41km bullring south of Launceston has a top speed of 270km/h. Average speed is 167km/h. With mainly left-hand corners, the circuit works right-side tyres harder.

>> Jamie Whincup owns the qualifying lap record at 50.9676sec and Rick Kelly owns the race lap record at 51.4713sec – albeit all the way back in 2009 in a Holden Commodore VE.

>> Qualifying is ultra-important in Tassie, with only one winner coming from outside the top three on the grid in the last 21 races.

>> The short circuit makes qualifying times incredibly tight, so watch for team-mate helping each other with slipstreaming tows during qualify. A safety car in the race can also spell disaster as it is easy to go a lap down.

>> Whincup has more wins than any other driver at this venue with 11. Two wins this weekend and he will pass team-mate Craig Lowndes to become the winningest driver in championship history, with 104.

>> The late great Peter Brock has claimed the most pole positions at Symmons Plains with eight.

>> Garth Tander makes round start number 254 in Tassie, moving past Russell Ingall to second on the all-time list behind Craig Lowndes, who ticks off his 266th round this weekend.

>> The Tekno Autosports team will make race start number 200 in Tassie. Will Davison won on Sunday at Symmons Plains for Tekno last year, benefitting from Shane van Gisbergen and Mark Winterbottom running off on oil.

>> Holden is dominant in Tasmania, winning the last 12 races at the venue. Shane van Gisbergen scored the brand’s 500th touring car/Supercars win on Saturday here in 2016.

>> The Super2 development series makes its first ever start at Symmons Plains, despite being in existence since 2000.

>> Fox Sports will show the action live.