2016 Perth SuperSprint

The 2016 Perth SuperSprint was a motor racing event for V8 Supercars, held on the weekend of 6 to 8 May 2016. The event was held at Barbagallo Raceway at Wanneroo, Western Australia, and consisted of one race of 120 kilometres and one race of 200 km in length. It was the fourth event of fourteen in the 2016 International V8 Supercars Championship and hosted Races 8 and 9 of the season. The event was the 39th running of the Perth SuperSprint.

Cam Waters took his first championship pole position in a rain-affected qualifying session for Race 8. The race was won by Craig Lowndes, who took advantage of younger tyres, courtesy of a two-pit stop strategy, to take the lead from his teammates Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup in the closing stages. After a difficult Race 8, where he went off the circuit and was later spun, Mark Winterbottom took victory in Race 9 ahead of Scott McLaughlin and Lowndes. After finishing eleventh in Race 9, Whincup lost the championship lead to Lowndes.

On 27 April, it was announced that the series would be rebranded as the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship from 1 July 2016, with Virgin Australia becoming the primary sponsor of the category. On 4 May, Volvo, along with its performance arm Polestar, announced that it would withdraw its support of Garry Rogers Motorsport at the end of the 2016 season. The team stated plans to continue using its Volvo S60s in 2017, though this was cast into doubt when Cyan Racing, Polestar's motorsport partner, announced that the cars would be recalled to Sweden.

Jamie Whincup entered the event as the championship leader ahead of Scott McLaughlin, who had won both races at the previous event, and defending series champion Mark Winterbottom.

Two one-hour practice sessions were held on Friday afternoon, both of which were open to Enduro Cup co-drivers. Tony D'Alberto, Dean Fiore, Karl Reindler, David Russell and Luke Youlden completed laps in the first session, while Reindler also drove in the second session. The first session started under wet conditions, with all drivers using wet tyres. The session was stopped after eight minutes when David Reynolds got stuck in the sand trap at Turn 6. The circuit gradually dried out and drivers began changing to slick tyres after 15 minutes. McLaughlin set the fastest time of 56.4211 ahead of Chaz Mostert and Tim Slade.

The second session was also held in mixed conditions, with drivers again starting on wet tyres before changing to slick tyres later in the session. A number of drivers elected not to run early in the session due to the conditions. Whincup's car had an electrical issue with ten minutes remaining; his team was able to repair the car and he returned to the circuit. James Courtney set a time of 55.9297 with five minutes left in the session before rain hit again, preventing any improvement from other drivers.

A third practice session was held on Saturday morning and was 15 minutes in duration. The session was wet throughout, with the fastest time being 1:03.3112, set by Winterbottom. James Moffat's car lost oil pressure, ending his session and forcing his team to attempt to change the engine prior to the qualifying session, which started 50 minutes after the end of the practice session.

Qualifying for Race 8 took place on Saturday afternoon and consisted of a single 15-minute session. While drivers started the session with slick tyres, rain began to fall soon after the session commenced. Michael Caruso got stuck in the sand trap at the first corner of his first flying lap, which caused a red flag and resulted in his exclusion from the rest of the session. The red flag was not displayed immediately, however, and several drivers were able to complete a timed lap, with the fastest being Cam Waters ahead of Mostert and Craig Lowndes. The session was restarted after Caruso's car had been extracted, though only those drivers who had failed to set a time prior to the red flag being shown returned to the circuit. With the track now completely wet, the fastest of this group of drivers, Fabian Coulthard, qualified only twelfth, over four seconds slower than Waters' time of 59.6256. The session was stopped for a second time when Reynolds got stuck in the sand trap at Turn 1. With conditions not improving, Waters claimed his first pole position in the championship.