Motorsport: Small track sets a big challenge for V8 teams

Volvo's Scott McLaughlin will be ``giving it the jandal'' in Tasmania today. Photo / Edge Photographics

The V8 Supercars circus has landed in Tasmania this weekend for round two of the championship battle. The Symonds Plains track is one of the shortest on the calendar but that doesn't mean it's one of the easiest to master.

All the teams will have to adjust to reduced track time - three 20-minute practice sessions and two 10-minute qualifying sessions - so getting the best set-up straight out of the truck will be paramount.

Qualifying is important to all the drivers, especially in the Tasmanian round. The track has a couple of places conducive to passing, but it tends to lean towards a "follow the leader" style of racing.

One good thing for the teams is that the track doesn't really chew up tyres and as it's a soft tyre round, engineers won't be too worried about tyre wear and can concentrate on getting the most out of the car.

The leading Kiwi in the pack is Tekno Autosport's Shane van Gisbergen, second on the table behind Red Bull Racing Australia's Craig Lowndes with fellow Kiwi Lockwood Racing's Fabian Coulthard in third.

Reigning champion Jamie Whincup got the defence of his title off to a rocky start in Adelaide and is in seventh place, his worst start to a championship in nine years.

"We've had a good start to the season and we've had good speed at Adelaide and Melbourne," said van Gisbergen.

"The car's feeling really good and hopefully we can keep building on the success, especially with Pukekohe coming up.

"Being in a one-car team has its advantages and disadvantages. When we struggle in practice we feel it the most as we don't have another car's data to compare with.

"On the plus side, though, we can all focus on the one car and our team manager Steve Hallam is doing a great job.

"Qualifying at Symonds Plains is probably the most intense as it's hard to pass and the top 20 last year were separated by only three 10ths of a second. The race track is okay and I just hope it doesn't rain as it's no fun around here."

Coulthard has gone from strength to strength since joining Brad Jones Racing, and is now a consistent front-runner in the field.

He has fond memories of the Tasmania track, having notched up his first win there last year. He is confident his team have the car in the right window and sees no reason they won't be a force to deal with this weekend.

"It's definitely a better foundation to build on than last year," said Coulthard. "I left Adelaide in 23rd 12 months ago but managed to finish sixth in the championship. This year we've got a bag full of points early on, so it's good to come here with a solid background.

"We've got a very good racecar and we always move forward during the race. The car's good and we just need to extract the very best out of it on the day.

"The track has been kind to me in the past [two wins and the round win], and it's also good to go back to a track you know you can go well on. We made some progress with car set- up for qualifying at the Grand Prix and I'm a lot more confident we can qualify well this weekend."

The third Kiwi in the series, Scott McLaughlin, has made Volvo and "giving it the jandal" household words in V8 racing.

The young Kiwi has already had a podium finish in a point-scoring round and won Volvo its first V8 Supercars weekend, albeit at the non-points scoring weekend at the Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix.

"We had a good chassis to start from learning about it last year so we didn't have to build a car from scratch," said McLaughlin.

"The engine is fantastic and I think we're going enough to run up near the front because we need the points to get the championship back on track."

The schedule at Tasmania has two 42-lap races today and one 84-lap race tomorrow.