Can Triple Eight fire back in Tasmania?

Just the second ever winter trip to Tasmania looms as one of the key moments of the 2024 Supercars season being the final sprint before the enduros.

Quite brilliantly the championship battle is starting to heat up, with Chaz Mostert joining Triple Eight teammates Will Brown and Broc Feeney to make it a three-horse race.

After sweeping Sydney Mostert has become the first driver to disrupt the Triple Eight 1-2 at the top of the standings and after accounting for Feeney, has his sights set on Brown, 105 points ahead.

Whilst WAU has the momentum, Triple Eight has the history on its side, with Symmons Plains one of its happiest hunting grounds.

Minus 2013 when BJR dominated, Triple Eight has won at least one race in every Tasmanian round since its first success in the Apple Isle in 2007 with 27 wins from 40 starts.

Triple Eight has also been boosted by a recent test session, which often help teams unlock speed from its Gen3 package at the following event.

Although Triple Eight only won one race last year, current #87 star Brown took the other two victories at Erebus.

Despite the form guide suggesting Triple Eight will be tough to beat, Brown knows that cannot be counted on given the struggles at Townsville.

“There’ve been tracks that Triple Eight didn’t used to be as successful at and we’ve been very strong this year, and then there are tracks like Townsville, where they used to be dominant and we haven’t been dominant,” Brown told Fox Sports. 

“I don’t think you can look at the results from the previous years – you’ve just got to work on what we’re doing and try and hopefully win there this year.

“It’s just one of those things. These cars are very finicky with how you set them up.

“Some tracks click with people’s set-up, but it’s a bit more disappointing when you have two bad rounds.

“We thought after Townsville we would bounce back (in Sydney) really strong.

“Obviously they (WAU) have caught up. 

“If I knew what was missing, we would fix it. I don’t know, to be honest.

“It does make it a little bit tough, but I’m sure with all the smart guys and girls we have at Triple Eight, we will be going well in Tassie.”

Although WAU is flying, it has only won once at Tasmania since 2009 and that was Mostert’s first triumph with the team in 2021.

But their biggest challenge will be overcoming the SuperSoft tyre, which gave the team nightmares at Hidden Valley where the #25 qualified outside the top 20 for both races.

Both Mostert and WAU Team Principal Carl Faux are well too aware of his and know they cannot afford a repeat of Darwin at Tasmania if they want to be a championship challenger.

“We need to be good again when we go onto the SuperSoft tyre in Tasmania. We’re chipping away at it,” Faux said. 

“That will be the telltale for us on whether we can challenge for the championship.”

“We have just got to keep making things better and better and we still have a bit to work on our weaknesses,” Mostert said.

“We are off to Tassie which will be the big question mark for us because it is on the SuperSoft tyre.

“Have we turned our cars around or come up with a philosophy that is going to suit that?

“Then we have what we call the ‘lamb chop’ Symmons Plains is a very unique place.

“We have had a couple of good runs there in the past and got my first WAU win there (2021) I think so we have done well there in the past but it is a different era and have just got to make sure we roll good there.”

The other factor of Tasmania is the infamous hairpin where cars slow from 250km/h to just 60km/h.

The funnelling nature of it can often lead to chaos, especially on the first lap.

Both Feeney and Mostert know first hand the dangers of the hairpin having been tangled up in a clash at the start of Race 10 last year, while then championship leader Brodie Kostecki was also involved in a separate incident.

Tasmania SuperSprint schedule

Practice 1: Fri 14.20-15.20

Practice 2: Sat 11.05-11.25

Qualifying: Sat 13.00-13.40

Race 17: Sat 16.10 (55 laps)

Practice 3: Sun 10.20-10.40

Qualifying: Sun 12.40-13.30

Race 18: Sun 15.05 (55 laps)

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