Two-time Symmons Plains winner Fabian Coulthard is backing the $2 million worth of changes to the Tasmanian track to benefit racing.
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The state government had accelerated its maintenance funding that was set down for 2019 over safety concerns for drivers arising from a series of incidents at last year’s Australian Supercars championship race at the circuit.
Fixed issues included a safety bump inserted inside turn two to prevent drivers dangerously cutting corners, a 30-metre concrete extension replacing a tearing edge on turn seven while asphalt has been laid around the tight Brambles hairpin bend.
Motorsport Tasmania boss Donald Potter believes the changes will only modestly alter the track’s character.
“Probably it will be on turn two because that’s where they used to cut it a fair bit. That’s the one that will really make a difference. So it is now a 120mm little speed bump. They will look twice at trying to cut that,” Potter said.
Fresh from claiming the chequered flag at the Australian Grand Prix non-championship round on Sunday, Coulthard gave his thumbs up to the money spent on the latest improvements ahead of round two of the Supercars series.
“I think just evolving circuits from year to year, they all get better,” Coulthard said.
“It makes the racing better and any time we can have corners without tyre bundles and the like means we can actually have a go, and won’t affect the racing too much.”
While the measures are to ensure safety is paramount, Coulthard said history proves it also leads to faster racing.
“Previous places we’ve gone have seen the lap records fall, so I imagine it will be very similar here,” he said.
Just two weeks from returning to the track, Coulthard is confident of improving his top-ten finish at the corresponding race last year after capturing second in the 2017 opener at Clipsal 500.
“I’ve had good success here in the past – it’s one of those tracks that looks simple on paper, but it’s tough to maximise the lap,” he said.
“You generally find the fields spreads not a hell of a lot. There’s six corners – it’s a lot easier to get six corners than 18 from where we’ve come from at the grand prix.
“So the racing is pretty hard, fast, lots of action.”
Coulthard has special memories at Symmons Plains, the venue was where the New Zealander earned his first Supercars podium finish in 2009, calling it a “track that suits my style”.
“It’s one of those events we love to come because the fans embrace it,” he said.
“It’s very rare in the sense you can pretty much see the whole track from the surroundings of the circuit.”