Perth SuperSprint Back to Wanneroo
Posted on May 15, 2024 Tags: F1 Imola Italy
Great Family Friendly Weekend!
IF I WERE TO ASK YOU which Australian circuit has hosted the most Supercars events, you might be surprised to know it’s Wanneroo!
In fact, this weekend’s Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint hosts the 96th and 97th races at the popular venue.
And 2024 marks the 45th Supercars/ATCC event to be held at the WA Sporting Car Club circuit, on Perth northern outskirts, known in recent times as Carco.com.au Raceway/Wanneroo.
Fact is the Wanneroo venue has hosted more Supercars/ATCC races than any other circuit in the country.
Perth’s never-ending summer to continue?
Teams carrying their multi-million dollar shipments from Melbourne, Albury, Gold Coast and Brisbane made the 4000km annual trip across the Nullarbor In huge state-of-the-art transporters (like those pictured here) for this weekend’s two-race twilight events on the famous Wanneroo circuit.
Despite last week’s devastating cyclone that hit Bunbury – south of the WA capital city – our seemingly endless “summer” is forecast to continue, with highs of 28 this weekend for the Perth SuperSprint.
The nonstop action-packed three days also feature First Focus Radical Cup Australia, Aussie Racing Cars, Dunlop Series, and Touring Car Masters.
As part of the ongoing partnership with Supercars, Tourism WA, and the City of Wanneroo, the WA Sporting Car Club hosts the biggest motorsport event in WA.
It’s a great family event, with the train/bus connection taking your team straight into, and out of, the venue each day.
The track is one of the shortest in this year’s Repco Supercars Championship at just 2.42km, where lap times average just 54-55 seconds.
Carco.com.au Raceway is the premier motorsport venue in Western Australia.
Local Aces Ready to Rock Carco.com.au Raceway
There are three drivers who call the Perth SuperSprint event their home race.
• Reigning Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki #1 (above left) and Supercars rookie Aaron Love #3 (centre) were born in Perth. Brad Jones Racing’s Andre Heimgartner #8 (right) moved to Perth earlier this year.
Brodie is the first West Australian Supercars champion since Garth Tander in 2007, way back in my day!
Pit Stops Paramount in Perth
Qualifying and race pit stops are paramount all weekend during the Perth SuperSprint as the field hunts down current Championship leader, Red Bull’s Will Brown #87 (above left).
The Toowoomba gun has claimed three race wins from eight starts in 2024 and holds a 71-point lead over teammate Broc Feeney #88 (right) heading into the Perth SuperSprint weekend.
Full Weekend Race Schedule and Driver Standings
https://www.supercars.com/events/2024-perth-supersprint/schedule
https://www.supercars.com/standings/2024/supercars
Just a shame the Perth SuperSprint clashes with the popular WA Car Club Forest Rally, round 2 of RallyWA!
The Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint event is exclusively live on Fox Sports and Kayo, highlights on the Seven Network and 7plus, check local guides for details.
My sincere thanks to https://www.supercars.com/
An Appointment with History
The Formula 1 World Championship returns to Europe this weekend, eight months on from the previous Grand Prix on the Old Continent and in Italy, the same country that hosted that race in Monza in on September.
In fact, Italy has hosted a total of 105 world championship Grands Prix, the most of any country, 30 of them at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola.
Imola, May 17, 2023
This weekend’s race is only the fourth edition of the Gran Premio dell’Emilia-Romagna e del Made in Italy, as last year’s event had to be cancelled because of floods that hit large parts of the region, causing some fatalities and devastation.
Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
May, 2024
While there has been heavy rain around Emilia-Romagna early in the week, the local forecast looks promising for the weekend.
Italian (Emilia-Romagna) Grand Prix
Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari
PERTH WA Times listed
P1 Fri 17th May 19:30
P2 Fri 17th May 23:00
P3 Sat18th May 18:30
Qualifying Sat 18th May 22:00
Race Sunday 19th May 21:00
Pirelli chooses C3, C4, C5 for Imola
For the seventh round of the season, Pirelli has gone with the softest trio of dry tyre compounds: C3 as Hard, C4 as Medium and C5 as Soft.
It’ll be the first time this trio of boots will be put to the test at the Emilian track, one of the oldest fixtures on the championship calendar.
It’s renowned for being very technical, highlighting the skills of the drivers who have to tackle quite complex combinations of corners and braking zones.
The legendary Enzo Ferrari was one of the promoters of the project to build a circuit on the hills around Imola and he described it as a sort of “little Nurburgring.” Originally, in 1957, the venue was named in memory of his son Dino, his own name being added after his death in 1988.
Just shy of 5000m, the track is not particularly hard in terms of the forces exerted on the tyres, even if the asphalt is still relatively abrasive, despite not undergoing resurfacing since 2011.
A busy programme of track action over the Grand Prix weekend, gives the road surface a good level of grip that increases the more the cars run.
Imola is a narrow track with 10 corners to the left and nine to the right – and a significant 30 metre elevation change. And only one DRS zone makes overtaking far from easy, so qualifying plays an even more important part in deciding the outcome of the race.
This explains why Imola F1 has never been won from lower than fifth on the grid and 19 times out of 30, the driver first past the chequered flag had started from the front row.
Alonso won at Imola way back in 2005
This weekend marks the 31st Grand Prix to have been held alongside the banks of the Santerno River that runs past the circuit.
Of the 20 drivers entered this year, only Fernando Alonso raced at Imola when it was known as the San Marino Grand Prix.
The Spaniard won in 2005 after a thrilling duel with Michael Schumacher, while the following year the positions were reversed between the two rivals.
And nearly 20 years later, Fernando is still at the top of his game!
Michael is still the most successful driver at Imola, with seven wins, six of them with Ferrari, one with Benetton. Williams and Ferrari share the honours among the teams with eight apiece.
When it comes to pole positions here, Brazilian Ayrton Senna tops the list with eight, the last of which he secured on 30 April 1994, a day overshadowed by the death of the Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger.
The following day, May 1, the same fate befell Ayrton Senna in what was one of the most tragic weekends in the history of the sport.
To mark the 30th anniversary of their deaths, this weekend a series of events have been organised for this weekend at Imola.
The silly season continues at Imola, with three-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen reportedly rejecting a $250 million a year offer from Mercedes to stay with Red Bull!
Meanwhile Red Bull heavy hitter Helmut Marko, in his column this week for German publication Speedweek, declared that the whisperings around Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson were unfounded and misconstrued.
“The rumours that Ricciardo will be replaced by Liam Lawson at Imola are nonsense,” Helmut, who heads up Red Bull’s Driver Development Program, wrote. “Liam’s manager from New Zealand … he has certain dreams and they are made known through some media, including from New Zealand. Nothing at all is planned in Imola.“
But Helmut couldn’t help himself!
Just to keep the niggle in, he added: “But, of course, we will look at this in the future.”
EDITED by AC
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