Qualifying tweak for Tasmania SuperSprint

This month’s Ned Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint will feature a tweak to the Saturday knockout qualifying session.

Under a minor revision to the schedule, the third segment of Qualifying for Race 10 of the Repco Supercars Championship is now 10 minutes long, with the others being 15 minutes each.

Previously, all three were a quarter of an hour in duration, matching the supplementary regulations for the previous event of the season, the Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint.

Then at Wanneroo, the third segment of qualifying was very quiet, to the point where cars rolled out in circumstances similar to that of a Top 10 Shootout, and similar might reasonably be expected at Tasmania’s Symmons Plains given it too is a 2.4km circuit.

Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Shane van Gisbergen said on the subject, “I feel like it could be a little better.

“There’s so much dead time. Maybe it needs to be 15-12-10, or even eight minutes for the last one; didn’t need 15 for it.

“We didn’t have the tyres to make the most of it.”

Grove Racing’s David Reynolds agreed, saying, “15 minutes at the end with 10 cars is too long.

“If they gave us endless sets of tyres, you’d see heaps of people flogging around, but we only had three sets.”

Like Wanneroo, each driver will have seven sets of tyres at their disposal at the start of the weekend including the two sets to hand back prior to qualifying and racing.

That leaves five sets for a three-part qualifying session, when most will use one set per part, and one new seat each for the rapid-fire Sunday morning sessions.

As was also the case at Wanneroo, the three races will each be 42 laps or 100km long.

Practice for the support categories takes place on Friday, May 19, with the Supercars Championship field hitting the track from the following day.

Tasmania Supercars schedule

Start	Finish	Category/Competition	Session
Friday, May 19
10:35	10:55	Tassie Tin Tops	Practice
11:05	11:30	Porsche Challenge	Practice 1
11:40	12:00	Formula Ford	Practice 1
12:10	12:30	Aussie Race Cars	Practice
12:40	13:05	Porsche Challenge	Practice 2
13:05	13:15	Supercars	Demonstration
13:20	13:40	Tassie Tin Tops	Qualifying
13:50	14:10	Formula Ford	Practice 2
14:20	14:40	Aussie Race Cars	Qualifying
14:50	15:10	Porsche Challenge	Qualifying
15:10	15:20	Supercars	Demonstration
15:30	15:45	Formula Ford	Qualifying
16:00	17:30	Supercars	Track Walk
Saturday, May 20
8:25	8:45	Formula Ford	Race 1	1 lap after 8:43
9:00	9:30	Supercars	Practice 1
9:35	9:45	Supercars	Demonstration
9:50	10:10	Tassie Tin Tops	Race 1	1 lap after 10:08
10:20	10:40	Aussie Race Cars	Race 1	16 laps or 1 lap after 10:38
10:55	11:25	Supercars	Practice 2
11:25	11:35	Supercars	Demonstration
11:40	12:05	Porsche Challenge	Race 1	1 lap after 12:03
12:15	12:35	Formula Ford	Race 2	1 lap after 12:33
12:55	13:10	Supercars	Qualifying Part 1 – Race 10
13:15	13:30	Supercars	Qualifying Part 2 – Race 10
13:35	13:45	Supercars	Qualifying Part 3 – Race 10
13:45	13:55	Supercars	Demonstration
14:05	14:30	Aussie Race Cars	Race 2	19 laps or 1 lap after 14:28
14:40	15:05	Porsche Challenge	Race 2	1 lap after 15:03
15:50		Supercars	Race 10	42 laps or 1 lap after 16:43
Sunday, May 21
8:40	9:00	Aussie Race Cars	Race 3	16 laps or 1 lap after 8:58
9:15	9:35	Tassie Tin Tops	Race 2	1 lap after 9:33
9:50	10:05	Supercars	Qualifying Race 11
10:15	10:30	Supercars	Qualifying Race 12
10:30	10:40	Supercars	Demonstration
10:45	11:10	Formula Ford	Race 3	1 lap after 11:08
11:20	11:40	Aussie Race Cars	Race 4	16 laps or 1 lap after 11:38
11:50	12:30	Porsche Challenge	Race 3	1 lap after 12:28
13:05		Supercars	Race 11	42 laps or 1 lap after 13:58
14:20	14:30	Supercars	Demonstration
14:35	14:55	Tassie Tin Tops	Race 3	1 lap after 14:53
15:00	15:15	Supercars	Demonstration
15:50		Supercars	Race 12	42 laps or 1 lap after 16:43
8:40	9:00	Aussie Race Cars	Race 3	16 laps or 1 lap after 8:58

All times local/AEST/UTC+10