The event is staged over a three-day weekend, from Friday to Sunday. Three thirty-minute practice sessions are held, two on Friday and one on Saturday. Saturday then features a three-stage knockout qualifying session which decides the grid positions for the following 120-kilometre sprint race. A single twenty-minute qualifying session is held on Sunday, with the top ten progressing to a top ten shootout to decide the grid for the following 200 km race. The event has been known as the Triple Crown since 2006, which originally referred to the three races in the weekend format of the time. Currently, the title refers to the two races during the event and the top ten shootout. The Triple Crown remained elusive until Scott McLaughlin was fastest in the top ten shootout and won both races in 2019.
History
Hidden Valley Raceway had existed for several years prior to being upgraded for its first national championship event in 1998, a round of the Australian Touring Car Championship. Mark Skaife had been on course to take victory in the opening race when an engine issue on the final lap allowed teammate Craig Lowndes past, with Skaife finishing 2nd. Lowndes' car then failed to fire prior to the start of the second race and both he and Skaife failed to make the grid, leaving the front row empty. Russell Ingall, who had a stop-go penalty in the first race for spinning Jason Bright, charged from 13th on the grid to take victory and went on to win the inaugural round with another win in race three of the weekend. In 1999, Bright took his first career round win in what was Ford's only round win of the year. It was also the first round win for Stone Brothers Racing, who saw further success at the event in 2001 when Marcos Ambrose scored his first round win, despite not winning a race over the weekend. In 2004, Ambrose made contact while attempting to overtake Skaife for the lead on the final corner of the race, delaying both and granting victory to Ambrose's teammate Ingall. In the following race, Ambrose then spun Ingall off on the first corner of the race. Todd Kelly went on to win the round, his first of two consecutive event wins. Michael Caruso took his first Supercars race win at the event in 2009, holding off a late charge from Alex Davison. At a late safety car restart in the first race of the 2011 event, the top four tangled into turn one, allowing fifth-placed Rick Kelly to take the race win. In 2013 Jonathon Webb, driving for his family team Tekno Autosports, won his first career round. At the 2015 event, Lowndes became the first to achieve 100 race wins in ATCC and Supercars, capitalising on a collision between Rick Kelly and Fabian Coulthard on the opening lap. In 2016, Caruso provided Nissan with their first round victory since 1992. At the same event, Lee Holdsworth suffered a broken pelvis in a first lap accident, forcing him out of the next three events. From 2017 to 2019, Scott McLaughlin became the first driver to win three consecutive events in Darwin. Most notably, this included McLaughlin becoming the first driver to win the Triple Crown in 2019, qualifying fastest in the top ten shootout and winning both races for DJR Team Penske. In 2020, Hidden Valley will host two events on consecutive weekends as part of the calendar changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
