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00:00When you arrive at Simmons Plains Raceway in Tasmania, you can be forgiven for thinking it's
00:10going to be a walk in the park. 2.4 kilometres in length, just seven corners and a lap time of
00:18only 52 seconds. It sounds simple enough but just consider all of this. The driver has his foot to
00:26the floor for more than half the lap. Top speed is over 270 kilometres an hour with an average of
00:33around 170. More than 20 gear changes and brakes are screaming at more than 900 degrees. All of that
00:41before the kettle's even boiled. The entry to turn one and two is a tricky sequence. You're doing over
00:47200 kilometres an hour on the entry and you've got to go from fifth back to second gear in a very short
00:51period of time. Sometimes, it doesn't matter what you do though, some things are out of your
00:56control. Oh, massive crash. He's gone straight ahead at turn two. That is a massive accident.
01:05The hairpin here at turn four may be one of the slowest corners of any track that we travel to
01:09but don't let it fool you. On the approach, you have to wipe off over 200 kilometres of speed
01:15and with a braking zone the size of a doormat, one small mistake can ruin anyone's race.
01:21That's going to end in tears. That's going to end in tears.
01:24That was caused by Will Davison moving over. There's not many times you'll see Craig Lance
01:29without a smile on his face. A good exit is critical for what's down the road.
01:33Now this is where things get very interesting and fast. You approach here at turn five flat out in sixth gear.
01:41You have to be 100% committed to go side by side here at over 270 kilometres an hour.
01:47Oh, here we go. There's some bumping. Oh, this is so dangerous. That is wild. Risky move but he made it stick.
01:53And if you're close enough, it's where you make your move for turn six, up ahead.
02:00The team mates made contact.
02:02To keep the momentum going from the exit of turn six onto the main straight, you have to nail the throttle.
02:08You can't lift, not even a little. You have to hit this spot right here.
02:13It's a lot to do around here in 52 seconds, but if you get it right lap after lap, it's a pretty cool feeling.
02:19Fabian Coulthard wins at Simmons Plains.
02:27It's the opening round of the super sprint season.
02:30Welcome to Simmons Plains for the tyre power Tasmania 400.
02:36The V8 supercars only on seven.
02:41It's all about the circuit here, so settle in for a Sunday afternoon of supercars on seven.
02:46The championship battle resumes at Simmons Plains Raceway just outside of Launceston here in beautiful Tasmania.
02:53Hi, everybody. I'm Matt White. Welcome to the V8s here on Seven Sport.
02:57It's our second event of the season, but we're up to race six now at the championship today.
03:02200 kilometers, 84 laps.
03:04And it's incredible just how much drama and action and carnage can unfold on a circuit that is so short,
03:10but so spectacular, so simple looking. Alongside me, as always, Neil Crompton and Mark Scaife.
03:16G'day, boys. Crompo, there's no doubt about it. This place packs a real punch.
03:19It does indeed. And yesterday, it boiled over.
03:21We've seen competitive tension before between Craig Lowndes and Jamie Wincup.
03:25Well, finally, they got together yesterday in a boil over down at turn six.
03:30It was an amazing moment. It really wasn't a big deal.
03:33It was just one of those things that happens in motor racing.
03:35And since then, they've been flat out in denial by the time we get to the end of the weekend.
03:38You'd swear they'd never been here. Have us believe all sorts of things.
03:42And really, because Jamie fights against the public perception, Scaife, of Craig being such a mega hero,
03:48he always seems as though he's going to be guilty. I didn't think there was much in it,
03:51but it was certainly something that everybody in the paddock had a point of view on last night.
03:55Yeah, hi, Neil. Hi, everybody. This was a real drama. It's been coming for a while.
03:58You can't operate at the front of the field like they've been operating and not run into each other.
04:02So, how's the paper? Wincup, sorry. Robust overtaking sends Lowndes off the track.
04:07So, it's been on overnight. I went and spoke to the guys about it.
04:10I mean, they've all calmed down now and they've got on with the job.
04:12But the reality is there was a lot of intense racing right through the field.
04:16Let's have a look at the highlights because it was some really high quality racing even in the middle of the field.
04:22At the pointy end, we've just seen one of the most controversial things between Wincup and Lowndes for a long time.
04:28So, in the middle of the field, here's Pye into the side of Tanda.
04:32They're all running into each other down at turn four. Rick Kelly went wide. Todd Kelly ran into Jack Perkins.
04:38Rick and Todd had some dramas through the day yesterday.
04:40And even the teammates from the other side of the fence, from forward,
04:44they were involved in a pretty heavy battle there with Dave Reynolds.
04:46Winterbottom down the inside goes Van Gisbergen.
04:49And this was a massive moment, Croppo, for Wincup. That was almost a crash there at turn seven.
04:54Very easy to drop it off the road there. Meantime, for Rick Kelly, a problem with a leaky brake master cylinder.
04:59Pitches him off the road at turn six. Buried in the gravel trap down there.
05:02They rectified that problem. Brought out the Pedder's safety car with Lowndes in control.
05:07New restart rules this weekend. There's a bit of untidiness in that process here and there.
05:11One or two drivers were compromised. Now the big moment down there at turn six.
05:15Jamie has a lunge into the gap and bang! Right there at the apex of turn six.
05:21Off the road goes Craig. And Jamie's watching. What about this?
05:24Check this.
05:25Little bump between Fabian Coulthard and Craig Lowndes through turn seven.
05:29Meantime, it was pretty easy after all that four. Jamie Wincup scores another very big and important win.
05:34Gets a heap of points. And what about this for the start of race five?
05:37A really high quality jump from both Winterbottom and Wincup. They were right alongside each other.
05:42It was a really beautiful start. And Davison then down at turn four. He runs on.
05:47But then this is on board. So he got the bends just stopped before the kitty litter.
05:52But have a look at this. There's Courtney, Dahlgren, Engel, Caruso. They've all run into each other.
05:58And then Will Davison went to turn the car around. He ended up in the kitty litter, which brought the safety car out.
06:04So from that restart, Jamie skipped away. We were surprised at the margin he was able to pull.
06:09And what about Todd Kelly? Rounding up the pack before he got to the control line.
06:12He had to serve a drive-through as a result of that. And look at this. Garth Tatter down the inside.
06:16Whacks into Lee Holdsworth. Launches him onto two wheels. On the other side of him,
06:20David Reynolds in the green. Bottolo Ford Falcon. Three into one. Does not go at turn two.
06:25David Reynolds was like he was in a war zone down there. There was bumping between Perkat and Engel.
06:30This was the way that Lowndes was coming through the field. He got three or four guys down here at turn six.
06:35Very nice overtaking manoeuvre. A good exchange, actually, with Jason Bright.
06:38And that was a very, very good run with Craig Lowndes. And Mostert into the back of Rick Kelly.
06:44Craig comes from 25th. He was last with a technical penalty. He was last and got to fifth. A great drive for Craig Lowndes.
06:52Look at the margin here on the restart for Win Cup once again. He was just on fire yesterday.
06:57Meantime, Shane Van Gisberger launching over the back of the left rear corner of Davey.
07:00Again, still in that war zone that you spoke about. And a bit of racing is rubbing here between Craig Lowndes and Scott McLaughlin at turn seven.
07:07Both of them sideways at more than 200 kilometres an hour before they put their foot on the brake pedal.
07:12But in the end, it was Win Cup home again. This time, though, really shadowed by Winterbottom.
07:16That was a great exchange between the two of them.
07:18What a day. Two poles and two wins for Jamie Win Cup. That was certainly a super Saturday.
07:22And it's paid off in terms of the championship points. He came into this weekend seventh.
07:27He goes up to third mark. Winterbottom goes up to fourth as well.
07:30Rick Kelly, the biggest loser on the top ten page there. He dropped six spots in the day.
07:35We always say that you've got to have eyes everywhere at Simmons Plains, where we have, on our mega wall, Aaron Noonan standing by.
07:41So, too, Rihanna Crean. But let's start with you, Mark Larkin.
07:44Thanks, Matty. Down here in what we call the paddock in V8 Supercar Racing.
07:47Not a paddock like I like to hang out in, but this is behind the garages.
07:51And this is where we've got all our transporters.
07:53And the Nissan Motorsport Jack Daniels transporter, very typical of what the pit lane consists of now.
07:58About a million bucks worth of gear just here.
08:00All B-doubles, meaning there's a B-trailer and an A-trailer and the Prime Mover.
08:04Now, typically up in the A-trailer, they'll have a driver comfort room and some storage area.
08:09But what we've done this weekend is take you inside what we'll call the locker room, up in the front of the B-trailer,
08:15which is, again, typical of what's up and down the pit lane.
08:17And what happens when you see the cars come in, end of a session, end of a race, end of qualifying,
08:22the drivers, the teams, they all sort of disappear.
08:24Well, what they do is they come into here, because this is fitted out beautifully inside.
08:29A lot of computer resources in there.
08:30It's air-conditioned, very comfortable.
08:32And that's where the drivers will download with their engineers, look at their data,
08:36and make all the critical decisions that happen out there on the racetrack.
08:41It's the 42nd year that the championship has been coming to Simmons Plains Raceway.
08:46And this place really is so rich in history.
08:49But what I love and what the fans really love is the fact that they can come up here on the hill,
08:54in their deck chairs with their friends and families,
08:56and see just about every single part of this great little racetrack.
09:00I can't wait for all the action this afternoon.
09:07Well, it's a big weekend for Garth Tander from the Holden Racing team here at Simmons Plains.
09:11He equals the late great Peter Brock for fifth on the all-time starts list,
09:15212 championship appearances.
09:18Now, Tander also holds the record for the most starts in a Holden in the championship.
09:22More than Greg Murphy, Mark Scaife, Peter Brock, and Todd Kelly, who sit next on that list.
09:27He's also on the same number of race wins here at Simmons Plains as the great man Peter Brock himself.
09:31Seven wins between Brock and Tander at Simmons Plains.
09:34Now, Tander turns 37 tomorrow, so happy birthday, GT.
09:38It's no secret, though, that he's out of contract at the end of the season with the Holden Racing team
09:42and with Walkinshaw Racing.
09:44My sleuthing tells me that there's an announcement imminent for him
09:47to remain with the factory team for probably the next couple of years
09:50alongside the already re-signed James Courtney.
09:52We'll wait and see how that unfolds.
09:54Another interesting side note, too.
09:55Garth Tander's managed by James Henderson,
09:57who also looks after Tasmanian cricket legend Ricky Ponting
10:00and the coach of the Hawks from the AFL, Alistair Clarkson.
10:03Of course, that's the only way that I could get a reference into Tasmania.
10:06Hawthorne in the brown and gold.
10:07Right off to a great start in the AFL.
10:09We'll have more news from Winton next weekend
10:10and probably some more news with Garth Tander.
10:13We'll wait and see what happens.
10:14Well done, Noons.
10:15There's always a lot of news floating about the V8 Supercar Paddock
10:18and our V8 sleuth is all over it.
10:21So it's a big afternoon ahead.
10:22Settle in.
10:23It's going to be a lot of fun.
10:24After the break, qualifying a 20-minute session
10:26ahead of the 200-kilometre race to finish off the weekend.
10:30We're also going to have a look back,
10:31some of the favourite race cars of our drivers
10:33and our commentary team as well.
10:36The Holden Road Trip,
10:37where we've put some cameras in the cars
10:39of the boys coming to the track today
10:40and they're going to answer your questions
10:42that you've sent in overnight.
10:44And then we finish it all off
10:45with race six of the championship.
10:48Who will take the final race of the tyre power?
10:50Tasmania 400.
10:51Our first V8 viewer question of the day.
10:55Will Mercedes-Benz get their first podium today?
10:58Can a Merc make the podium?
10:59V8Supercars.com.au
11:01slash vote
11:01or use our 7Sport app and get voting.
11:05Qualifying is next.
11:06As I said, it's all about the circuit.
11:07So let's go for a hot lap around Simmons Plains.
11:10OK, hi everyone at home.
11:15You're stuck with me.
11:17You've drawn the short straw.
11:18You've got JC, car 22.
11:20But we're here in Simmons Plains this weekend.
11:23Crazy little circuit.
11:25Doesn't look that exciting on paper,
11:26but trust me, it's one hell of a circuit.
11:28So let's see how we do it.
11:31Radio up around.
11:37The lead up onto the main straight is not even straight.
11:40You're hanging, soaring at the wheel.
11:42This little section up over the hill here
11:44is like a roller coaster.
11:46Using a lot of curb here,
11:48trying to get the rear of the car settled.
11:50It's like wrestling a bear in here through there.
11:53Up against the wall.
11:54Try and run along the wall here
11:55to just get as much straight line speed out of the thing as you can.
11:59Jump onto the brakes.
12:00Massive stop here.
12:02Whoa, lock the rears a little.
12:05Slowest corner on the track.
12:06Back to first.
12:07Hard on the power.
12:08All the circuit out of there.
12:11Up here, a little bit of a time to relax.
12:13Maybe do a bar adjustment.
12:15Some boys check their hair.
12:17Bit of make-up on.
12:19Up into the last corner.
12:20It's a big bad stop.
12:22Up into here, back to third.
12:23The car's dancing around.
12:25Up into the apex.
12:27Hard onto the gas out of here.
12:29Short shift to four.
12:30And just hang on to the thing.
12:32It's a wild little laugh.
12:34And let's see how we go in the car 22 over the weekend, guys.
12:37Cheers.
12:38Lined up and ready to go for qualifying for race six now.
12:51Quick check of the weather.
12:5218 degrees and some cloud about.
12:56Britain to shower yesterday and it didn't occur.
12:59So probably the same conditions today.
13:03Temperature-wise, track-wise.
13:06But, of course, the difference is it's a longer, harder haul today.
13:10A longer race and a longer qualifying session.
13:12So, event number two on the calendar as we zero in on Simmons Plains Raceway.
13:18First started racing here in the Australian Touring Car Championship 1969.
13:22It's 2.4 kilometres.
13:23Top speed of 270 on approach.
13:26Down to turn six.
13:27That's it.
13:28The wind is behind you.
13:29Currently, there's no wind.
13:31So, 57.5% or 57% of the time you're on full throttle here.
13:36And the qualifying record belongs to Craig Lowndes, who's been at the forefront of the headlines all weekend, Larko.
13:43Yeah, Matty, I'm a bit knocked up.
13:45I just ran up here because I really wanted to show you this.
13:47This is the device we're talking about, or the whole.
13:49Have a look at this vision first, though.
13:51You can see yesterday we got a shot of both the cars.
13:53And you can see one has the tape over the apertures, clear tape, and one doesn't.
13:57So, what we've got, this is polycarbonate, and they've got a hole in here, and they put clear tape over that and the NACA duct here for fresh air to actually improve the aerodynamics of the car.
14:08They had a strong argument that they didn't stop the hole being there, but they didn't win the argument.
14:13And the hole is there for safety reason.
14:14So, a marshal can grab it and pull that polycarbonate out if the driver needs to get out in a hurry.
14:20Lost the battle.
14:20Yeah, and that's why Craig Lowndes was penalised and sent to the rear of the grid for our second race yesterday afternoon.
14:29And, of course, what transpired was an amazing drive from 25th up to 5th.
14:34A lot of people have said to me, Krompo, and I'm sort of putting you on notice here, what advantage are you going to make out of taping over that hole?
14:41It's like, relatively speaking, what, is it a tenth of a second?
14:45Is it, how do you know?
14:47Minuscule.
14:47Minuscule.
14:47You probably couldn't measure it.
14:50However, there'd be something in it, and that's the reason why it became an issue.
14:54Unfortunately, it's one of those technicalities where there's a rule.
14:57Breach of the technical regulations doesn't allow for any grey area, unfortunately.
15:02Even Roland, when I had a conversation with him about it yesterday, wholly admitted that when you breach the tech regs, there's nowhere to go.
15:10So, there's Steve Robertson from V8 Supercar, and he's in conversation with Roland there at the moment.
15:16There's a few of these going on.
15:17What's happening is the competitive level across the field is so intense at the moment.
15:24They're all chucking rocks at each other for the tiniest things.
15:27And Red Bull, by definition, are being watched very carefully, and that's putting a lot of stress up and down the lane.
15:33It's all part of the gamesmanship.
15:34Marco?
15:35Yeah, no, I was just going to pick up on exactly what you said, Neil.
15:37It's not so much, in fact, that it would almost be immeasurable the gain from it.
15:41It's a cultural theme, and a team has a culture of competitiveness.
15:44You will do all things at all times that you think may improve the performance of the car.
15:49And to that point, the reason why people go about engineering their race cars looking for all the micro detail, for example, with weight of the race car, it's a really good one.
15:59There's Richard Holway, one of the senior engineers down at Gary Rogers Volvo Polestar Racing.
16:05He'd be one of the brightest brains in the pit lane for trying to eke out that detail.
16:08Well, if you're lazy in your approach to performance, it accumulates.
16:13So, for example, if you think of all the little components around the car and you say, look, it doesn't matter, they're only a few grams heavy.
16:18It's only a few grams heavy.
16:20All of a sudden, you've got a car that's 10 kilos heavy.
16:22No doubt.
16:23So, if you approach the business with that lazy methodology, it bites you.
16:28So, that's the reason why they go after every little thing.
16:31And I sort of half suspect it was one of those things that got under their guard down there at Red Bull, where once Roland was made aware of it, for example,
16:37you go, you can't do that, because plucking that window out in the event of an incident is a safety issue.
16:43Here we are, Jack Daniels Racing, Missing Ultimate, Todd Kelly, car number seven.
16:48And a change of subject.
16:49These guys have had a tricky weekend so far.
16:51They've shown really good pace in the early part of the season, but they're a little bit befuddled out there at the moment,
16:57trying to find where their straight line pace has gone.
17:00Rick Kelly came into the event, his brother, this weekend, fourth in the championship.
17:04He slipped down yesterday at a leaky brake master cylinder.
17:06But they haven't been where they want to be, Skapey.
17:09Yeah, and I think they're also struggling a little bit with the car balance, Neil.
17:13As simple in terms of layout as this place may be, it has a real diversity between the slow stuff at the hairpin we're about to get to
17:21and the faster stuff at turn six and seven.
17:24So, to get that balance right and make the cars good, very, very hard.
17:28And especially when you consider we had the whole field yesterday within six tenths of a second in qualifying.
17:33He did get back to position number 14 in the second race yesterday after a drive-through penalty
17:38because he jumped the start, one of the restart processes that confused several of the drivers.
17:43Here's Rob Dahlgren.
17:44Just on that, and it will occur today because the chance of a safety car here is very high,
17:50under that new restart rule, Todd Kelly was pinged for overtaking before they got to the control line in that acceleration zone,
17:56which he clearly did, however, his point was, if I didn't, I would have rammed into five cars.
18:02Yeah.
18:03So, it was one or the other, and he copped the penalty, went back through the field,
18:07and as you say, comp, I managed to pick his way back through.
18:09So, this is a 20-minute qualifying session as opposed to yesterday's 10-minute bursts.
18:15So, we'll have to see how all this plays out.
18:17Jamie Winkup, top of the timesheets at the moment, 51-4.
18:21It'll be pretty speedy, boys, because it's overcast out there at the moment.
18:25The temp's down a little bit, and there's next to no wind.
18:29Yesterday, on Friday, in fact, they ran against a northerly.
18:32Yesterday, they had a reasonable southerly at times, and out there at the moment, it's pretty much calm.
18:37This is off the Turn 4 hairpin.
18:38We're riding with Jamie Winkup, 51.4.
18:42There's his team-mate, Craig Lowndes.
18:44Okay, thank you.
18:44And the reason that we're not going mad on the leaderboard at the moment is this will change.
18:51The last five minutes of this session, it will be on.
18:54We saw it yesterday in the two qualifying sessions.
18:56The last half of those were spectacular in terms of guys trying to eat their way towards the pointy end.
19:07Smoke inside the cabin here of Scott McLaughlin's Volvo.
19:11That may be brake smoke from the lock-up going in there, I would think.
19:17Neil used to call that, but the glove box was on fire, wasn't he?
19:19That's right.
19:21My glove box was on fire!
19:23No, it wasn't actually me that coined that phrase.
19:25It was another bloke that I know.
19:26He came into the pit lane one time and said he had a massive problem with the car.
19:30The glove box was on fire.
19:31He was wrong.
19:32Welcome back.
19:42It wouldn't be Simmons Plains without drama, and we've had some in this qualifying session.
19:47Win cut leads the way, still on 51.4, but our focus on Mark Winterbottom, who is in fourth.
19:53That has had an unfortunate situation with the Jack Perkins-Jeldwen car.
20:01We'll get to that in just a second as we ride here with Winkup.
20:0651.8 on that lap.
20:08There's a fair amount of traffic to deal with out there at the moment.
20:10Check this replay out.
20:12We're looking at Mark Winterbottom's centre of screen,
20:14and then arrives at the corner with a lock break as Jack departs the pit lane.
20:18And a bit of both.
20:19A little bit of both there.
20:23He was actually running wide himself.
20:26Yeah, Frosty was in the middle of his own slip up there.
20:30And Mark got on the radio and said, what was Jack up to?
20:33And I dare say Jack was on the radio saying, what was Mark up to?
20:37That's right.
20:38It's hard to see there because with the Hans device,
20:41once you actually get out of the pit lane,
20:44you can't look back over your shoulder to see whether you're clear.
20:48So it's hard to actually make that exit.
20:50So you have to pretty much accelerate the car hard
20:53and try to get your pace to the same pace of the car that's out there.
20:56So Jack wouldn't have seen Mark Winterbottom.
20:58He would have been in his blind spot.
21:00You can see that off to your right is where they come out.
21:03So very easy just to drive straight out
21:05and the contact there effectively with teammates.
21:08He would also not be expecting him to be so far to the right of the road
21:12at that particular spot.
21:13That's right.
21:13It's very hard.
21:14Really, 50-50 for both boys there.
21:16Pretty tough set of circumstances
21:18when you need to go qualifying with everything working for you.
21:22Winterbottom is quick at the moment, though, incidentally,
21:24to the second timing intermediate.
21:26There's a few guys out there showing pace.
21:28Lowndes is as well.
21:31The thing about this track,
21:32its length and the nature and shape of it,
21:35is that when it all lights up here,
21:37you need to have about 14 sets of eyes
21:39just to be able to track what everybody's up to.
21:41It's extraordinary.
21:4251.3, new benchmark time for James Courtney,
21:45Holden Racing Team,
21:47the winner of race three in Adelaide.
21:49There's Russell Ingle at a cracker race yesterday
21:50and a great qualifying.
21:52So Winkup now comes back to the top on a 51.2 to reassert.
21:56That's slower than his best time in qualifying
21:59in the second qualifying yesterday.
22:02And not that far from Craig Lowndes' qualifying record of 2012.
22:06We're riding now with James Courtney.
22:08Here he is in turn six.
22:11Courtney's been bumped to second.
22:12He needs to find a tenth to grab Jamie Winkup back again.
22:17Nice job through there.
22:21Not quite.
22:2251.3, 6.
22:23So he's two hundredths of a second slower than his previous best.
22:28He's effectively one-tenth of a second away from Winkup.
22:31So Winkup, Courtney, Lowndes,
22:33Winterbottom on the lap that we were within there before.
22:35He was good enough to do a 51.4 into fourth position,
22:41Van Gisberg and Reynolds.
22:43McLaughlin now, 51.25,
22:45one-hundredth of a second away from Winkup.
22:48And did you see him arrive over the hump into turn two there?
22:51Basically had the thing all but disconnected from the road.
22:54Just slithered over the top of the hill.
22:56This is Tim Slade, Super Chief Auto Racing.
22:58He's at turn two.
23:00Tim's down in 13th at the moment, car number 47.
23:03You're seeing the car, the car's at their dynamic best here.
23:07So accelerating from 165 kilometres an hour in that final corner
23:12through six and seven, which is effectively one corner.
23:16And then sliding, grabbing fifth gear briefly
23:18and then having to wipe a big pile of speed off
23:20up over the top of this hill.
23:22So Winkup, then McLaughlin, Courtney, Lowndes,
23:26Winterbottom, Van Gisbergen had a tough day yesterday,
23:28young Shane.
23:29Then David Reynolds, Nick Perkat,
23:30who also had a shocker of a day,
23:32but he's eighth at the moment.
23:33Then David Wall and Scotty Pye.
23:35We'll take a break.
23:36Back with more shortly.
23:43You're riding on board the S60 Volvo of Scott McLaughlin,
23:47Gary Rogers Motorsport, car 33.
23:49So all the cars have emptied out of pit lane,
23:52aside from two, Garth Tander and Jack Perkins.
23:57Still working on Jack's car after that incident.
23:59I just went back to the event-specific notes
24:02from the driver's briefing on Friday.
24:05And it is, throughout practice, qualifying the case
24:08that the driver that's entering the circuit
24:10from the pit lane area has got to be very careful
24:12feeding back onto the racetrack.
24:15So that'll be a bit of an issue that'll get talked about
24:17later on, obviously, in that contact between Frosty
24:20and young Jack down there.
24:21Awkward situation, Rihanna.
24:23Yeah, just on the Volvos, Neil,
24:26just having a chat to Gary Rogers.
24:27The guys, both of them, Robert and Scott,
24:29have been struggling with power steering issues
24:31throughout the weekend.
24:33Remember back to the first test day we had?
24:35They had power steering issues there.
24:37The hoses were leaking.
24:38This is a separate issue.
24:39They moved the positioning of the reservoir
24:41on Friday night,
24:44but they're still struggling with those power steering issues
24:46in yesterday's race.
24:47And today, again, they have no idea what's going on.
24:49It's inconsistent.
24:51It's not just happening under load.
24:53And the guys are simply baffled.
24:54They don't know what is happening with the power steering.
24:56But it's not hurting Scott McLaughlin's pace at the moment.
24:59He'll be hurting his arms by the end of the day
25:01with 200 kilometres to come.
25:04The times are there.
25:05It's also a distraction
25:07if you've got to think about something
25:09other than absolute pace.
25:11That's why they put so much time and effort
25:13into the ergonomics of the cockpit of the car,
25:15making sure that your hands and feet
25:16are exactly where they need to be.
25:18Lowndes just punched at 1-1.
25:1951.1 for Craig Lowndes.
25:22Storming drive yesterday.
25:24And McLaughlin's only 200 away.
25:26So 51.16, 51.18.
25:29Will Davison just to position 4,
25:31then 51.3.
25:32Wink-up snaps back with a 51.13.
25:35Oh, Lowndes!
25:36Monster moment over the top of the hill.
25:39Approaching turn 2.
25:40And he did it.
25:4151.08.
25:43That's not him.
25:43He threw that car at turn 1
25:46and got him at the last moment.
25:48That's incredible.
25:49He drove it flat to the control line.
25:51So to get the lap time,
25:52he's out of control over the thing.
25:53He wrecked the next lap,
25:54but you get that lap.
25:55So that's what he did.
25:56That was a really high-level piece of driving
25:59to finish the lap
26:00and do a really smart...
26:02That's 51.08.
26:03That's the fastest of the weekend.
26:06And his teammate is on a good second split.
26:1051.13.
26:11There's only five hundredths of a second away.
26:15McLaughlin's gone.
26:16His next lap, 51.7,
26:18is not good enough.
26:19So Craig's qualifying record
26:21was set here on Soft Tyres two years ago.
26:2350.9 for Wink-up.
26:25He responds with a remarkable time.
26:28Better than the previous qualifying record
26:29that Lowndes held,
26:30which was a 51.04.
26:33So that's the fastest of the weekend
26:34and the fastest qualifying time ever.
26:37Jamie Wink-up.
26:38Van Gisberg, it is close.
26:40He's really close.
26:40He moves up to sixth.
26:44Will Davison, great job.
26:45Into fourth for the 51.18.
26:49So just again,
26:50those flags are stationary out there at the moment.
26:52You can see them on the top right-hand corner of your screen.
26:54There's no win
26:55and there's cloud cover.
26:56Ideal conditions.
26:58And Wink-up's made the most of it.
26:5950.9.
27:000.11 quicker than Lowndes.
27:02Here's Rick Kelly at the moment.
27:04Car number 15 down the order slightly.
27:07He's 20th.
27:09He's only got to find half a second though.
27:11Sounds easy.
27:13And he vaults into contention.
27:14David Wall, really good job up in the seventh.
27:17Dick Johnson's engines have always been very, very strong.
27:20So that will be part of the explanation
27:23why the DJR cars have been competitive all weekend.
27:25But David Wall there,
27:26that's the best that he's gone
27:27so far this weekend.
27:30So Wink-up, Lowndes, McLaughlin, Davison, Courtney,
27:33Van Gisburgh and Wall, Holdsworth,
27:35Coulthard and Caruso.
27:37Caruso, the highest placed Nissan in 10th.
27:42Courtney, 51.33.
27:43Couldn't improve.
27:45He's fifth.
27:47Nick Percat, solid job.
27:49Car triple two inside the top 10.
27:51He's in eighth.
27:54After a horror day yesterday,
27:55he said the car must have got out of the wrong side of the bed.
27:59Slade to seventh there.
28:00Two, Matt.
28:01So Percat, great job.
28:02He went to ninth.
28:03His team mate, Slade, went to seventh.
28:08So Percat's day yesterday compromised
28:10by going off in qualifying.
28:12Started rear in the grid in the first race
28:14and then tangled with Ingle in the second race.
28:17So here we go.
28:19Winnerbottom stays 13th.
28:20Oh, yeah.
28:22Out of the 10.
28:23Jamie Wink-up, though, does it again.
28:25He's the first driver
28:26since we've had multiple race weekends here
28:29to clean sweep all three poles.
28:31And, of course, he got both race wins yesterday.
28:33So Red Bull bounced back from yesterday's
28:35into team drama
28:36to lock out the front row of the grid.
28:38Volvo, Scotty McLaughlin,
28:40has Mercedes Erebus Motorsport.
28:42Will Davison next to him.
28:44Then it's Courtney.
28:45The gears.
28:45Tim Slade.
28:46David Wall.
28:47Great job.
28:48Same two.
28:48Nick Percat and Lee Holdsworth.
28:50So both Erebus inside the top 10.
28:53Mark Winnerbottom in 13th.
28:54Jason Bright's woes continues 16th.
28:57He was pinged a 25-second penalty yesterday,
29:00which means he went from position 6 down to 17
29:04at the end of the list.
29:05Garth Tander and Jack Perkins.
29:08So that's how they've qualified
29:09for race 6 of the Super Sprint.
29:11Tire Power, Tasmania 400.
29:13There's another masterclass
29:23by the reigning champ,
29:25Jamie Winkup.
29:26Qualifying record here.
29:28Four poles out of six sessions
29:29for the season to date.
29:32And now 55 career pole positions.
29:34So he's two away from equaling
29:36the record of Peter Brock.
29:37He's with Rihanna.
29:40Congratulations, Jamie Winkup.
29:41He just got out of the car
29:42and said, that was rad.
29:43Three from three pole positions this week.
29:45Congratulations.
29:46Yeah, no, it was really cool.
29:47I got a really good run.
29:48The tyres take forever to come up,
29:50but I knew this is the lap, you know.
29:51This is what it's all about.
29:53Got a good run through the first two sectors
29:55and my dash was telling me
29:56that I was slower than what I was,
29:58but I'm like, that's definitely wrong.
29:59I know I'm up more than that.
30:01Got a really good run through the last sector
30:03and to see a 50 pop up on the dash
30:05is a really cool feeling.
30:06Yesterday was a dramatic day,
30:08up and down for you guys in this team.
30:10How do you regroup overnight?
30:11What do you do to get yourself
30:13in prime position for today?
30:14Yeah, well, you know,
30:15we've got really good management
30:16and obviously Lowndes is an incredibly good bloke as well.
30:19So we chatted out.
30:20You know, we've known each other for a long time
30:22and as I said, you know,
30:24the situation was difficult yesterday.
30:26I didn't feel like I did anything wrong,
30:27but no, we'll move on today.
30:29We're both one and two again.
30:30You know, the battles we've had,
30:32we've been on track together for year after year
30:34and here we go again, you know,
30:35but hopefully we can keep it a bit cleaner today.
30:39Fastest man around this circuit.
30:40Well done.
30:41Yeah, thank you.
30:41Cheers.
30:43Hey, this is something I've wanted to do.
30:45Mark Winterbottom has kindly jumped out of his car
30:47and come up here to have a bit of a chat to us
30:48about his qualifying session.
30:50Mate, full of drama.
30:50Didn't qualify as well as you want,
30:51but one thing we want to have a look at first
30:53is the incident with Jack Perkins
30:55coming out of the pit lane.
30:56So Jack's corner of screen.
30:58Is he going to get there?
30:59There he is.
30:59Yeah, that's not good, is it?
31:01It's a blind corner.
31:02It's actually, you know,
31:02Jack come up and apologised after,
31:05but the contact there is not good,
31:07but the engineer needs to tell the driver
31:09who's coming on track and he wasn't told,
31:11so he looks like the villain,
31:13but we're all good.
31:14We make up,
31:15but it's pretty tough there.
31:16There's a bit of that going on this weekend,
31:18mate, don't worry.
31:18Okay, let's have a look at that.
31:19So we're going to go for a ride in the car
31:21with you around the track, mate.
31:22Now, I want to just,
31:23as we come here,
31:23so we're coming around here.
31:25There's the grid spaces.
31:26We're going to come onto the start finish line.
31:27We'll slow it down now.
31:28Right, so we talk often about this hump
31:30coming into turn one, mate,
31:31and this is a real driver skill area.
31:33Talk us through what you've got to do
31:35to get through here quick.
31:35There's lots of different lines.
31:37I stay a bit narrower than most,
31:38but the right front tyre wants to lock
31:40and that's,
31:41it's very hard to control that,
31:42but you're trying to slow the car down
31:44to turn left,
31:45try and not hit a guy
31:46coming back on track there,
31:47but it's all about exit
31:49because that's the straight
31:49and that's where you make your time up.
31:51Okay, so now if we look in the top of screen here,
31:52we'll just see the brake marker come up here.
31:54Now, I'm interested to know, mate,
31:55as you go down into turn four,
31:57it's the slowest corner in Australia,
31:58where do you get on the brakes?
31:59It's actually 245 kilometres an hour.
32:01Talk us through it.
32:02Yeah, it's about 120.
32:03You get rear locking,
32:04so from turn one,
32:05you know, front lock
32:07to now turn four, rear lock,
32:09all through the gearbox,
32:09first gear.
32:10I love this.
32:11The thing gets a bit wobbly.
32:12Sequential gearbox,
32:13bang, bang, bang.
32:14It's all on the shift lights.
32:15If you don't hit the shift light perfectly,
32:16it might be half a tenth
32:17and that's three positions,
32:19so it's got to be perfect
32:20down the back straight.
32:21Okay, now down into turn six, seven.
32:23Very tricky part of the thing.
32:25275 kilometres an hour, mate.
32:26You're on the picture.
32:27Whereabouts?
32:28What metre?
32:28It's about 160.
32:31Headwind, tailwind makes a big difference.
32:3220 metres, give or take.
32:34But setting yourself up for exit,
32:36third gear,
32:37a short shift to fourth
32:38because the car wants to wobble
32:39and you're right to the dirty line
32:41and just trying to set yourself up
32:43for this hump
32:43because if you lock a tyre,
32:45you're off the track
32:45and we see cars off there all day
32:47and it's very, very tricky at turn one.
32:48Beautiful.
32:49Thanks, mate.
32:49Great.
32:50Well done
32:50and good luck for this afternoon's race.
32:52It looks easier on there,
32:53so there we go.
32:54Yeah, it's going to be tough for Mark Winterbottom.
32:57He'll start from 13th.
32:58His former teammate, Will Davison,
33:00is on the second row of the grid.
33:01Both Erebus Mercedes cars
33:03are inside the top 10,
33:05so it's no wonder
33:05that owner Betty Klemenko
33:07is very happy.
33:09A lot coming your way this afternoon
33:10on the V8 Supercars on 7.
33:12We'll take a trip down memory lane
33:13and check in with the drivers
33:15and our own commentators
33:16to find out
33:16what their best race cars are.
33:19Also,
33:20you've posted some questions.
33:21The boys have answered them.
33:23A Holden road trip
33:24on the way to the track this morning.
33:26Larko will crunch the numbers.
33:28It's never as easy as it seems
33:29as we build up to the final race
33:31of the tyre-powered Tasmania 400.
33:34Race 6 of the Championship 200 Ks.
33:37It's going to be a beauty.