In the hoo-ha surrounding last year’s Phillip Island Grand Finale clash between Rick Kelly and Craig Lowndes, one aspect was largely overlooked. The collision may have been the championship clincher, but two incidents in preceding rounds took the wind out of Lowndes’ sails. One was the Triple Eight driver’s Surfers chicane short-cut, the other a dud Symmons Plains Saturday, when he qualified outside the top 10 and consequently got hit from pillar to post in race one, finishing 27th.

We’ve dug up the past to highlight just how important the Tassie meeting has become, especially now it’s the penultimate round. Last year it was the third-last event.

Adding to round 13’s importance is a historical aspect – the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the first racing at Symmons Plains.

According to Terry Walker’s Fast Tracks book, which outlines the history of every Australian circuit to 1995, the first race meeting was held in 1957, but not on the current circuit, which was built three years later.

The Light Car Club of Tasmania conducted a combined motoring and aviation sports day on the Youl family agricultural property on October 28, 1957. "The day’s events included formation flying, aerobatics, a motorkhana and several short races over a grass track," Walker wrote in Fast Tracks. A tract of land on the property was then set aside for the construction of a permanent race circuit, or what is now Symmons Plains Raceway.

SPR’s facilities improve year-on-year, with a sparkling new pit complex and resurfacing among the recent ‘renos’. For 2007 covered grandstand seating has been introduced to help protect punters from the Apple Isle’s ever-present elements. The stands – which cost a reasonable $139 for three days, including paddock access – are adjacent to pitlane and have a dedicated super screen.

Another change is a new event sponsor and name. What was the Ferodo Tasmania Challenge is now the Falken Tasmania Challenge, with the tyre brand jumping aboard. Mind you, it was kinda more appropriate for the Launceston leg to be sponsored by a brake company, given how the anchors are given a bloody big workout here.

Brakes may well decide the round, and ultimately the champion. And a title clinched in Tassie would be a first.

JB's Farewell Tour John Bowe’s only ‘home ground’ victory came during his championship year, 1995. I’ve been going to Symmons Plains since 1960 and went to the first ever race meeting there as a kid. I first drove around there when I was 11 in my dad’s little Elfin open-wheeler at a private test day – and the layout hasn’t changed much since! So I’ve done a lot of laps there, not that it has helped me much as I haven’t had much success at Symmons. Since the Tasmanian Government got behind it, Symmons has been resurfaced and had its pit garage and corporate facilities upgraded. Essentially that’s taken it forward from being a country race track. Obviously I’m a Tasmanian, so I feel an affinity with the place. As the end of the year approaches, it’s getting difficult to deal with idea of finishing up. I’m a great one for burying my head in the sand, so I hope they don’t make too much of a fuss in Tassie. Car-wise, Symmons is all about power-down and braking, as there are two really hard stops.

A Day At The Races

Ticketing

General Admission

Friday: $20.25 ($15.25 concession)

Saturday: $39.25 ($30.25 concession)

Sunday: $50.25 ($40.25 concession)

3-Day: $70.25 ($55.25 concession)

3-Day stand: $139 ($118 child under 13)

All prices are for pre-purchased tickets. Extra for gate purchases. For more info www.ticketek.com.

Program

Event times unavailable at time of print, but format as follows:

Friday: 1 x Practice (maximum 50 laps)

Saturday: Qualifying and 1 x 120km race.

Sunday: 2 x 120km races.

TV Times

Rd 13 – Tasmania

Saturday, November 17: 2.00pm-5.30pm

Sunday, November 18: 2.00pm-5.30pm

*Check your local guides.

DID YOU KNOW??????????? This is Tassie’s biggest annual sporting event. Make that the state’s biggest sporting event fullstop. Last year V8X chatted in the media centre with local newspaper scribes and enquired as to the state’s biggest one-day sporting crowd. The crusty scribes told us the 2005 V8 round’s Sunday attendance of a whisker over 30,000 eclipsed the 1979 Glenorchy vs Clarence football grand final’s 24,900-strong crowd. In other words, about one in every 15 Tasmanians was at Symmons Plains to see Garth Tander hoist the top trophy in ’05.

Rewind

Another Tander moment

Garth Tander scored his second consecutive Symmons round in November 2006, winning both Sunday races and taking pole. His Toll HSV teammate Rick Kelly, meanwhile, took full advantage of Craig Lowndes’ misfortunes to turn a 38-point deficit into a 73-point series lead, despite finishing off the podium in fourth. It’s worth noting Ford Performance Racing had both its stars on the podium, Jason Bright second and Mark Winterbottom third. Bright won race one and was pipped for the round by one point.

2006 round results 1 Garth Tander Holden 2 Jason Bright Ford 3 Mark Winterbottom Ford 4 Rick Kelly Holden 5 Todd Kelly Holden 6 Steven Richards Holden 7 Paul Dumbrell Holden 8 Will Davison Ford 9 Russell Ingall Ford 10 Jason Richards Holden

HISTORY 101

Symmons Plains

A flick through the history books reveals some tasty little morsels about Symmons Plains (see main yarn). In 1969, the Australian Touring Car Championship (forerunner to the V8 Supercar championship) became a series rather being held over a single event, and, hence, Symmons held its first round. The 2007 round will be the 35th time the series has visited the circuit. The layout has remained the same over the years, although the cars previously started on a curved grid, or what is now turn three.