Symmons Plains - A lap with Russell Ingall.

Usually Marcos Ambrose is the man to talk through a lap of the circuits on the V8 Supercar calendar - but this time the job falls to Stone Brothers Racing teammate Russell Ingall ahead of this weekends race at Symmons Plains...

Symmons Plains is not one of the most technical tracks in the country and for that reason it takes more effort to drag that extra fraction of a second out of the place and give yourself an edge over the opposition.

There is every possibility that the entire field could be separated by less than a second in qualifying this weekend and that could throw a couple of unexpected players into the mix.

The circuit is going to be a bit of an unknown for a lot of drivers, including my SBR team mate Marcos Ambrose, but I don't think that is going to affect anyone for any great length of time.

As you come over the start finish line in front of the new pit facilities you hit third gear, but then shift down to second and get on the brakes as you go over the rise and into the left hander. They tell me it is from this point that the new resurfacing on the track starts. You need to get the car balanced out of here for the slight right hander on to the main or front straight.

You hit fifth gear and reach about 240km before you are hard on the brakes - and I mean hard! The hairpin is one of the few first gear corners in the entire series and well will get to as slow as 50kph through here. It is vital to get to the power down as quickly as possible out of here and set up your run down the back straight.

While this is called a "straight" it really is a long slight right hander on which you hit top gear at about the mid-way point. Coming into the back part of the straight you need to ensure the car settles well under brakes. You then click down to third gear for the long left hander which basically connects the front and back part of the circuit.

You go through the first part of this in third gear, but then hit fourth mid-way through the corner for the finishing burst to the start finish line. They tell me that the resurfacing ends mid-way through this corner which will be interesting.

The V8 Supercar lap record at Symmons Plains is held by Craig Lowndes after he notched a 54.5805-second lap in a Commodore in 1999 - if the weather is fine, that record will be smashed this weekend.

I think there is every chance we will be in the 51-second bracket and maybe quicker. The big target will be the track's outright lap record which was set in the mid 70s by Alf Costanzo in an F5000 car.

I doubt we will get down to that time of 50.4 seconds, but I am sure there will be plenty trying to give it a crack.