Sydney Motorsport Park SuperSprint
 | |
| Race Information | |
| Venue | Sydney Motorsport Park |
| Number of times held | 18 |
| First held | 1992 |
| Race Format | |
| Race 1 | |
| Laps | 16 |
| Distance | 60 km |
| Race 2 | |
| Laps | 16 |
| Distance | 60 km |
| Race 3 | |
| Laps | 52 |
| Distance | 200 km |
| Last Event (2015) | |
| Overall Winner | |
 Chaz Mostert | Prodrive Racing Australia |
| Race Winners | |
| Chaz Mostert | Prodrive Racing Australia |
| Jamie Whincup | Triple Eight Race Engineering |
| Chaz Mostert | Prodrive Racing Australia |
The Sydney Motorsport Park SuperSprint is an annual motor racing event for V8 Supercars, held at Sydney Motorsport Park in Eastern Creek, New South Wales. The event has been a regular part of the V8 Supercars Championship—and its previous incarnations, the Australian Touring Car Championship and Shell Championship Series—since 1992. The event was formerly named under the Eastern Creek Raceway banner, until the track was renamed to Sydney Motorsport Park in 2012.
Format
The event is staged over a three-day weekend, from Friday to Sunday. Two one-hour practice sessions are held on Friday while a fifteen-minute practice session is held on each of Saturday and Sunday. Saturday features a pair of ten-minute qualifying sessions which decide the grid positions for the following two 60 kilometre sprint races. A single twenty-minute qualifying session is held on Sunday to decide the grid for the following 200 km race.[1]
History
Opened in 1990, Sydney Motorsport Park, then known as Eastern Creek Raceway, hosted its first major touring car event in the same year; a 500 kilometre endurance race known as the 1990 Nissan Sydney 500. Although it was a round of the Australian Endurance Championship and Australian Manufacturers' Championship rather than the Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC), it was open to Group 3A Touring Car regulations, and therefore featured several cars running in that year's ATCC. It was won by Larry Perkins and Tomas Mezera in a Holden VL Commodore. From 1992 to 1995, the circuit also hosted the non-championship Winfield Triple Challenge, a pre-season event consisting of the trio of touring cars, superbikes and drag racing.
The circuit hosted its first official ATCC event in 1992. John Bowe won both races of the event, holding on in a close battle with Tony Longhurst in the first race. In 1994, Peter Brock scored the first race and round victories in the ATCC for the Holden Racing Team. The 1996 event was held on the shorter 'North' version of the circuit, enabling the third race of the event to be held at night. Craig Lowndes won the event, becoming the first driver to win an ATCC round on debut since David McKay won the very first ATCC round in 1960. Russell Ingall and Steven Richards also made their ATCC debuts on that weekend.[2]
The event was dropped from the calendar in 1998 but returned in 1999, a year which began a four-event winning streak for Mark Skaife and the Holden Racing Team at the event. Marcos Ambrose ended the streak by winning in 2003. In 2004, Rick Kelly broke the record for the lowest starting position from which an ATCC or V8 Supercar round had been won, winning from seventeenth on the grid. Lowndes and Garth Tander, who completed the podium, started sixteenth and fifteenth respectively in a very wet race. The circuit hosted two V8 Supercar rounds in 2003 and 2004, the other being the Grand Finale, the final round of the series. In 2005, Lowndes took the first V8 Supercar race and round win for Triple Eight Race Engineering.[2]
In winning the event in 2007, Skaife broke Peter Brock's long-standing record of 37 round victories in the ATCC and V8 Supercars, taking his 38th win. His teammate Todd Kelly made it a one-two finish for the Holden Racing Team, while Jamie Whincup was disqualified from the third race for using illegal rear brake rotors. In 2008, Will Davison took his first V8 Supercar round win and the first for Dick Johnson Racing since 2001. Eastern Creek was dropped from the calendar in 2009, with the Sydney event moving to the Homebush Street Circuit, known as the Sydney 500.[2]
After hosting the series' pre-season test day in 2011, Eastern Creek, now known as Sydney Motorsport Park, returned to the V8 Supercar calendar in 2012 as a late addition.[3] As part of the renovation and name change, the layout was slightly changed, with the kink at turn 6 removed. The circuit was again removed from the calendar in 2013 before returning in 2014. The first two races of the 2014 event were held in very wet conditions, with Shane Van Gisbergen taking victory in both races.[4] Chaz Mostert won the 2015 event, winning two of the three races including another rain-affected race on the Sunday.
Winners
- Notes
- ^1 – The 1996 event was held on the North layout. All other years have been held on the Grand Prix (later known as Gardner) layout.
- ^2 – In 2003 and 2004, Sydney Motorsport Park (née Eastern Creek) also hosted a second round of the V8 Supercars Championship Series, the Grand Finale.
Multiple winners
By driver
| Wins | Driver | Years |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Mark Skaife |
1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007 |
| 3 | Craig Lowndes |
1996, 2005, 2012 |
| 2 | Glenn Seton |
1993, 1997 |
By team
| Wins | Team |
|---|---|
| 7 | Holden Racing Team |
| 2 | Glenn Seton Racing |
| Dick Johnson Racing | |
| Triple Eight Race Engineering | |
By manufacturer
| Wins | Manufacturer |
|---|---|
| 11 | Holden |
| 7 | Ford |
References
- ↑ "V8 Supercars Operations Manual 2015 - Divison A - Administration Rules" (PDF). V8 Supercars. 10 February 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 Greenhalgh, David; Howard, Graham; Wilson, Stewart (2011). The official history: Australian Touring Car Championship - 50 Years. St Leonards, New South Wales: Chevron Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-9805912-2-4.
- ↑ Bartholomaeus, Stefan (22 April 2012). "Eastern Creek added to 2012 V8 Supercars calendar". Speedcafe. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
- ↑ Howard, Tom (23 August 2014). "Van Gisbergen does the double at SMP". Speedcafe. Retrieved 23 July 2015.