10 Fast Facts: Bunnings Trade Perth SuperNight

1) This year marks the 43rd time the Australian Touring Car Championship/Repco Supercars Championship has visited Wanneroo Raceway in Western Australia. The first round was held in 1973 and since 1978 it has hosted a round of the championship every year bar 2010, 2020 and 2021.

2) Wanneroo is poised to regain the mantle as the circuit to have hosted the most races in ATCC/Supercars Championship history. The first race of the Bunnings Trade Perth SuperNight will be the 90th championship race held at the circuit, tying it with Symmons Plains, before edging ahead with the weekend’s remaining two races.

3) Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters will start his 200th Repco Supercars Championship race this weekend at Wanneroo; the milestone is scheduled to come up in the second race of the event. While Waters is yet to record a win in the west – his best is a third-place finish in 2019 – he scored the ARMOR ALL Pole Position for his first championship race at the circuit in 2016.

4) Only three active drivers have posted championship race wins at Wanneroo previously: Mark Winterbottom (7), Will Davison (3) and Chaz Mostert (1). Winterbottom is the most recent victor of that trio, his win in 2016’s Sunday race remaining his most recent on Australian soil.

5) One driver conspicuously absent from the Supercars race winners list at Wanneroo is championship leader Shane van Gisbergen. His best result in 28 starts to date is a second placing in the Saturday race of 2016, coming in his first start at the circuit as a Red Bull Ampol Racing driver. In fact, since joining Triple Eight, van Gisbergen has finished every Wanneroo race inside the top six, landing in every position except first place.

6) Ford couldn’t be heading to a better place to try and end its winless start to 2022. The marque has won 10 of the last 12 Supercars races at Wanneroo, dating back to Chaz Mostert’s win in the Sunday race in 2014. Falcons and Mustangs have also claimed 10 of the last 11 ARMOR ALL Pole Positions at the circuit in a span dating back to 2015.

7) The record for the lowest grid position for a winner of a championship race in Perth is 19th: Scott McLaughlin was eliminated in the first leg of qualifying for the Sunday race in 2018 but stormed through for the victory. The previous record was 12th, shared by Peter Brock (in both 1978 races) and Larry Perkins (Race 1, 1997). Interestingly, no driver has ever won an ATCC/SC race at Barbagallo from eighth or ninth on the grid.

8) The record for the closest race-winning margin has stood since 1996, when Craig Lowndes headed Peter Brock by 0.0226-seconds in a Holden Racing Team form finish in Race 2. The closest ‘racing’ finish happened a year later in 1997, when Larry Perkins pipped John Bowe to the Race 1 chequered flag by 0.1164-seconds.

9) The BP Ultimate Safety Car has appeared just three times in the last 14 Wanneroo races: the final races in 2015 and 2018, plus the Saturday race in 2019.

10) Wanneroo’s absence from the Supercars calendar in 2020 and 2021 has made for a bigger than usual crop of debutants. Seven drivers will make their first Supercars championship starts at the circuit this weekend: Jack Smith, Will Brown, Bryce Fullwood, Thomas Randle, and Broc Feeney, plus Perth-born cousins Jake and Brodie Kostecki. Of that septet, Feeney is the only one who hasn’t contested a Super2 race at the circuit.

The 2022 season will resume at the Bunnings Trade Perth SuperNight. Purchase your tickets now.