James Moffat  01_1 - video Dailymotion

James Moffat talks about the upcoming Trans Am series at Symmons Plains Raceway and reporter Josh Partridge takes a hot lap.

Transcript

00:00Look it's always exciting to start a new season and you know for me there's not

00:04too many better places than to do it down here at Simmons Plain. So Race Tasmania

00:08is an event that's been going for four years now so we're really looking

00:13forward to hitting the track and yeah it's going to be a massive field of cars

00:17for Trans Am this this year so 33 cars which I think is, don't quote me, but it

00:24might be the biggest grid size for a national racing championship down here

00:28in Simmons Plain. So to start the year in that way is sensational for everyone

00:32involved. Yeah it's just good to sort of I guess blow the cobwebs off. It's been

00:36you know sort of almost four months since we were last in the cars so guys

00:41have done a great job in the team preparing them over the summer and you

00:44know we can't wait to go racing. Well I think what makes this track down at

00:49Simmons so unique is is that Turn 4 hairpin. You know over the years there's

00:53been so many incidents some good some not so good you know it's a really good

00:58opportunity to pass but there's also a great opportunity for it to go wrong

01:03pretty quickly. So the first lap is usually pretty chaotic down there and

01:07you certainly don't want to be in the midfield because as the cars all bunch

01:10up it's it's quite easy to have contact. So really qualifying especially with 33

01:16cars in the field is going to be crucial. It always is in racing but even more so

01:21when we're racing down here. You obviously raced in Tassie a fair bit mate. Talk me

01:25through I guess some of the experiences you've had down here either good bad or

01:28or in between. Yeah look you've sort of had the best of both worlds down here

01:33really. Way back in sort of 2017 I was involved in the supercars and the big

01:38pile up heading up to the the hairpin which you know saw the race get red

01:43flagged and you know there was about a dozen cars badly damaged in that but you

01:50know only recently you know a couple of years ago we came down here and we're

01:54able to win the first three races for the for the year. So look you know good

01:59memories and bad memories but that's like most racetracks so we're just

02:03focused on making another good memory when we're here next weekend.

02:07My name's Josh Partridge and I'm here from the Examiner and I'm about to do a hot lap in one of these things before race Tasmania next weekend.

02:15Very nervous but very excited. This is something I've been waiting to do for

02:19quite a while so we'll see how it goes.

02:49So what was that like? That was absolutely awesome that was fantastic

03:13everything I've always thought it would be.

03:19you