NED WHISKY TASMANIA SUPERSPRINT: THE PREBRIEF
Penrite Racing drivers Matthew Payne and David Reynolds will head to Tasmania for the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint this weekend from the 19th to the 21st of May.
WATCH THEIR TASMANIA PREVIEW: HERE
The weekend will begin with an autograph session held by Supercars from 4:30-5:30pm at the National Automotive Museum of Tasmania near Launceston’s CBD on May 18.
The team gave an impressive performance in Perth for the third round of the Supercars Championship with David Reynolds taking to the podium on Saturday and Payne delivering multiple top ten finishes across the weekend; building on his impressive performances so far in 2023.
Reynolds will return for a 12th time to Symmons Plains Raceway, where last year, he scored the first ever podium result for the team. Reynolds is currently 6th in the drivers’ championship with 533 points.
Payne, is currently leading the rookie charge in the championship, sitting in 12th place behind Todd Hazelwood.
It will be the first time Payne has raced at Symmons Plains which provides another challenge for our rookie who has proven his ability to adapt to new tracks early in the season.
Both drivers travelled to Launceston last week to undertake a number of promotional activities in the lead-up to the event.
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO ON THE SUPERCARS SITE: HERE
Team Principal, David Cauchi reflected on the team’s results last year and is confident that the team can deliver another strong performance.
“I am looking forward to Symmons Plains, we have some special memories there; achieving our first podium result back in 2022.”
“We have been heading in the right direction as a team, working hard to improve our performance each weekend. We have some solid momentum after Perth where we demonstrated we have the pace to qualify and race up the front,” said Cauchi.
David Reynolds said:
“There are only three corners [on Symmons Plains Raceway], but every corner is different to every other corner. It’s got the slowest corner at the hairpin, and the line you take in qualifying isn’t the line you take in the race otherwise people are going to crash into you and pass you. Turn 1’s quite tricky, because it’s over the bump and there’s a big crest but all in all it’s a fun place to be.
“Last year was really cool, we got our first podium as a team so that led us on in a strong run for the rest of the year, but I love racing in Tasmania because [the races are] over so quick – 52 second laps. It’s got a huge back straight; we’re doing 280km/h so it’s quite fast. It’s a very intense style of racing – the races are over in like 35 minutes, so it happens really quick but I’m looking forward to it because anytime you get to drive these cars it’s a pleasure.
“Our performance in qualifying has been quite strong. We are just missing a little bit in the races, and we are working on a solution for that so look out for us to win a race possibly,” said Reynolds.
Matt Payne said:
“This is going to be a pretty cool round, obviously heading to Tasmania is cool in itself. Symmons Plains is an interesting track; it’s pretty much only three corners. It’s nice and short just like Perth was so there’s going to be some hard racing.”
“There’s going to be a lot of focus on qualifying because it looks like it’s a pretty tricky track to pass but then you see a lot of people making up positions from the back last year.
“Perth was really good for us, I think myself and Dave had some pretty good car speed straight out the box so it was a good run, and we got some good results. I had a good qualifying on the first day, I got my first top five, which was awesome. Dave got a podium as well on the Saturday, so it was a successful weekend and hopefully we have the same sort of car speed, so I am really looking forward getting on track on Saturday,” said Payne.
NED Whisky, Penrite Racing team partner are the title sponsor of the round. Matt Payne recently visited their Somerton Barrel House to learn more about their whisky making process.
WATCH FULL VIDEO: HERE
Three races will take place across the Saturday and Sunday with the first Practice session to be held at 9:00AM.
You can watch live coverage of the event on Foxtel and stream live and on demand through Kayo.
CONTACT:
Alison Powell | PR, Media, Marketing Coordinator | Penrite Racing | alisonp@grovegroup.com.au | +61 04542 518 061
