Snapshot

The end of the 2015 V8 Supercars is upon us with the finale, the Coates Hire Sydney 500, taking place this weekend at Sydney Olympic Park.

To celebrate the final event of the Holden Racing Team’s 25th anniversary year, the #2 and #22 Commodores will wear a special livery. This was unveiled to excited supporters at a special event on James’ home turf in the Western Suburbs of Sydney.

The V8 Supercars category first raced at the 3.42km street circuit around the Olympic Stadium in 2009 and it was designed to make a perfect lap near impossible. Its many bumps, camber changes and a mix of corner speeds proves a challenge for even the most skilled drivers.

All 13 races at Sydney Olympic Park have featured at least one safety car period - 27 per cent of racing laps at the circuit have been run under yellow flag safety car conditions. No race has seen all starting cars classified as finishers. In 2015 both Saturday and Sunday’s races were abandoned after extreme weather set-in and made racing dangerous.

Racing at this event has always been fierce and the winning margin at the track has always been very close. The ‘biggest’ winning margin was 3.9087s from James Courtney to Michael Caruso on Sunday in 2009.

Garth is currently 4th in the overall standings and he is determined to maintain this position. While James missed out on competing at Sandown and Bathurst due to injury, he still currently rounds out the top 10 in the Drivers’ Championship. The Holden Racing Team is currently 3rd overall in the Teams’ Championship.

Words of Wisdom:

Garth Tander, #2 Holden Commodore VF:
“I’m looking forward to the last race of the year, we are currently sitting 4th and I obviously want to maintain that. We are going to Sydney Olympic Park where our cars were strong last year especially on the Sunday. It’s the end of a very long year and everyone is tired but we would like to finish the year off successfully and carry that momentum into next year.”

“I think we will be relatively strong in Sydney as we have proved all year that our cars perform better at the street circuits. That’s not to say we are excepting to turn up there and the cars to just be fast, there is a lot of work to do.”

“We will continue to develop the cars, there is a lot of development going on with the cars with an eye very much on 2016. Making sure we have good performance in the last race of 2015 as well as developing the cars for 2016 is very important at this event.”

“This is a street circuit in its truest form and the next track that is most similar would be the Gold Coast in terms of the proximity of the walls and the curb profiles. It’s very bumpy, a lot of curbs are used here and it’s very hard on the brakes. It’s a very demanding circuit both physically and mechanically. Drivers make mistakes and the cars can break and that is what causes the incidents and safety cars.”

James Courtney, #22 Holden Commodore VF:
“We’ve had many different liveries this year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the team and I think it is great that we have another one to finish the year with. I think is looks similar to the Star Wars car I would have driven at Bathurst with the silver. It’s also good that they have slipped all the Holden dealer names on the car which is a nice touch.”

“It’s been a tough year with lots of ups and down, it’s been a season that has had everything but we’ve had great success on street circuits. We’ve had a couple of wins and pole positions but next year I need to make sure I don’t get hit by anything so I can compete for the full season.”

“We’ve always done quite well at Sydney and street circuits tend to suit our cars quite well. Out of the street events this year we’ve won two and got second in the other one, so it points to a possible good result this weekend.”

“The track is quite ‘old-school’ where it’s really bumpy and quite aggressive on the cars and drivers. It’s a tough race to finish the year but it sorts the men from the boys. I’d say the car set up will be similar to the other street circuits and I think again we will try a lot of different things in my car to get a better direction in terms of set up.”