Symmons Plains Raceway

"Symmons Plains" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Symmons Plains Estate.

Symmons Plains

200px Lay out of the Symmons Plains Raceway
Location	Launceston, Tasmania
Time zone	GMT +10
Coordinates
Owner	Motorsports Tasmania
Opened	March 1960
Major events	V8 Supercars
Length	2.41 km (1.5 mi)
Turns	7
Lap record	0:50.16 (Alfredo Costanzo, Lola T430 Chevrolet, 1980, Formula 5000)

Symmons Plains Raceway is a motor racing circuit in Australia, located about 30 kilometres (18.64 mi) south of Launceston, Tasmania. Since the closure of the Longford circuit in the 1960s it has been Tasmania's premier motor racing facility. The circuit is one of the longest serving circuits of the combined history of the Australian Touring Car Championship and the V8 Supercar Championship Series. Since 2005 it has hosted the Falken Tasmania Challenge for V8 Supercars.

In 2004, the facility received a A$3 million upgrade which included some modifications to the layout of the track, including moving the start/finish line back to a more conventional location opposite the pits. It had previously been on a curve (which is now located just after the first corner), unusual for a road course. Symmons Plains is also known for its extremely tight hairpin bend, known as Brambles Hairpin, at the end of the old front straight.

The circuit

Symmons Plains Raceway is 2.41 kilometres (1.50 mi) long and is very hard on brakes. The banking at the hairpin is a unique opportunity to overtake. The other overtaking opportunity is the left hander at the end of the back straight.

The outright lap record at Symmons Plains was set in 1980. Driving a Lola T430 Chevrolet Formula 5000, Alfredo Costanzo set a time of 50.16 seconds. The closest anyone has come since 1980 was British driver James Winslow who set a time of 50.5036 seconds on 1 April, 2012 while driving a Formula 3 Dallara F307 Mercedes-Benz.

Australian Touring Car Championship

Main article: Tasmania SuperSprint

The circuit has hosted rounds of the Australian Touring Car Championship and V8 Supercars Championship since 1969. The circuit was left off the V8 Supercar calendar in 2000 before returning in 2004 after the upgrades were completed.

Lap records

As of 19 October 2015.

Class	Driver	Vehicle	Time	Date
Outright
	Alfredo Costanzo	Lola T430 Chevrolet	0:50.16	23 March 1980
Racing Cars
Formula 5000	Alfredo Costanzo	Lola T430 Chevrolet	0:50.16	23 March 1980
Formula 3	Tim Macrow	Dallara F307 Mercedes-Benz	0:50.3278	6 April 2013
Formula 2	Jon Crooke	Cheetah Mk8 Judd VW Golf	0:54.73	9 March 1996
Formula Ford	Richie Stanaway	Mygale SJ09A Ford	0:55.3004	31 May 2009
Sports Cars
GT	Bryce Washington	Lamborghini Gallardo	0:52.5247	2 September 2007
Nations Cup	John Bowe	Ferrari 360 GT	0:55.3797	27 April 2003
Aussie Racing Cars	Adrian Cottrell	Aurion-Yamaha	1:01.7011	13 November 2011
Touring Cars
V8 Supercar	Rick Kelly	Holden VE Commodore	0:51.4713	30 May 2009
Group A	Jim Richards	Nissan Skyline GT-R R32	0:55.97	10 March 1991
Group C	Peter Brock	Holden VH Commodore SS	0:58.51	11 March 1984
V8 Utes	Nathan Pretty	Holden Commodore VE SS	1:03.0611	1 April 2012
Historic Touring Cars
Touring Car Masters	Steven Johnson	Ford Mustang Trans-Am	0:56.8212	28 March 2015
Motorcycles
Australian Superbikes	Josh Waters	Suzuki GSX-R1000	0:53.3870	13 November 2011
600cc Supersport	Jason O'Halloran	Yamaha YZF-R6	0:55.493	10 September 2006

External links

• Symmons Plains at MotorsportTAS.com.au
• Map and track history at RacingCircuits.info

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