CATEGORIES

Garry The Guru

THE END OF OUR SUPERCARS ERA

End For The Altima

Kelly Racing’s switch from Nissan Altimas to Ford Mustangs in 2020 brings to an end the Altima’s seven-season stint in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.

Decade Dave

David Reynolds is known as the larrikin of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, but there’s much more to the man with a 10-year deal locking him in with Erebus Motorsport until he’s 44 years of age.

Beyond The Wheel

GEARING UP FOR EXPANSION

The Record Breaker

DJR Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin has rewritten the Australian Touring Car Championship/Virgin Australia Supercars Championship record books in 2019. This is the story of his remarkable season and what comes next.

Pony Up!

After seven seasons with the Nissan Altima, Kelly Racing switches to Ford Mustangs and downsizes to two cars in 2020. Co-owner and driver Rick Kelly reflects on the team’s time with Nissan and what awaits with Ford.

The French Connection

While the focus was on the return of Craig Lowndes and Garth Tander entering the 2019 PIRTEK Enduro Cup, it was Alexandre Prémat who won the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 and helped Scott McLaughlin take his second championship win, capping a remarkable eight-year journey for the Frenchman in Supercars.

GRM's Tough Call

The biggest casualty of the 2020 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship grid shakeup is the loss of Garry Rogers Motorsport, ending a 24-year run in the category.

Getting Down

Supercars will reduce downforce on the Ford Mustang and Holden ZB Commodore for 2020 in the latest bid to improve the racing and achieve better parity between the cars.

Young Guns To Watch

The 2019 PIRTEK Enduro Cup will be a crucial test in the careers of a number up and coming drivers, thrown into the deep-end at Bathurst with the opportunity to impress in the main game. These are their stories...

Chris Pither And His Long Battle For A Regular Drive In Supercars

It’s been a long road back for Kiwi Chris Pither after a serious practice crash at Bathurst in 2008 put his career on hold. More than 10 years on, the 32-year-old is the only driver to have his name on both Dunlop Super2 Series and Australian V8 Ute Racing Series trophies. After being sidelined at the start of 2019, he’s eager to prove once again that he belongs in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.

2019 Pirtek Enduro - Dream Team

In 2019 Triple Eight Race Engineering fields what could be considered the strongest endurance driver line-up in the history Australian touring cars, with Craig Lowndes and Garth Tander joining Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen respectively with 14 Bathurst 1000s and 12 championships won in total. Lowndes and Tander share their thoughts on their return to Supercars in these exclusive interviews.

Going The Distance

The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship goes into long-distance mode with the PIRTEK Enduro Cup, awarded to the combination with the most points across the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, Vodafone Gold Coast 600 and Penrite Oil Sandown 500. And with no leadin endurance event ahead of the Great Race at the Mount Panorama Circuit, the test for the drivers and teams is even greater in 2019.

The Burning Questions

How will the 2019 PIRTEK Enduro Cup play out? These are the 19 questions which will be answered at the long-distance events…

Alive & Kicking

In quite an extraordinary short period of time, the now defunct Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport operation has been salvaged from cellar-dweller regulars at the end of 2017 to genuine frontrunners as 23 Red Racing in 2019. We spoke to owner Phil Munday and driver Will Davison about how they’ve achieved such a quick jump.

Australia's Motorsport Hub

The Bend Motorsport Park has set a new standard for Australian motorsport and is looking to improve as it prepares for its second Virgin Australia Supercars Championship and, from 2020, an endurance event.

2020 Vision

The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship is reworking its rules with the aim of cutting costs and improving the racing heading into 2020 and beyond.

Keeping Up With The Joneses

The Joneses have been regulars in Supercars over the last two decades. And in 2019, the next generation arrived with Macauley Jones, son of team boss Brad Jones, stepping up from the Dunlop Super2 Series into the Team CoolDrive entry at Brad Jones Racing.

Mustang Sully

With the speculation over if/when Ford teams will switch from the Falcon to the Mustang under the Gen2 rules, some aren’t happy about the potential change, as Bruce Newton reports.

The Non - V8 Supercars

A non-V8 engine will appear in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship in 2018 for the first time in more than two decades. And while we often associate the V8 with the series we knew as V8 Supercars until recently, other engines have been raced with great success in Australia.

The Five Pillars

Supercars’ deal to run the Australian GT Championship and the launch of SuperUtes and Super5000 secures what it calls the “five pillars” of the sport moving forward. This is what the five categories bring to the table for the overarching business of Supercars.

Nissan At The Crossroads

Nissan has the biggest factory-backed presence in Supercars this season but it isn’t translating into results as head office weighs up its future in the category.

Unlocking Speed

This time last year Swiss superstar Simona de Silvestro completed her second wildcard appearance at the Bathurst 1000 and was preparing for her full-time stint in Supercars. One year on, we touch base with the 29-year-old to discuss her progress.

Kiwis Take Flight

Is there something in the water in New Zealand? For a country with a population well south of five million there’s no shortage of motorsport talent, as the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship is witnessing in 2017. We spoke to Kiwi Supercars legend Greg Murphy and MotorSport New Zealand CEO Brian Budd to find out the key to this success.

Greg Murphy - Once A Warrior

Twenty years ago, Greg Murphy got his full-time break in the Australian Touring Car Championship following Craig Lowndes’ departure to Europe. It was the start of a glittering, sometimes controversial but always interesting career that intensified the generational change and the connection between talented Kiwis and our sport.

Super Manufacturers

Supercars is desperately seeking manufacturers to enter its series under the Gen2 regulations. The irony is that 20 years ago multiple manufacturers raced at Mount Panorama in the Super Touring Bathurst 1000s, having been shut out of V8 Supercars.

Right On Track

Reflections on Racing Overseas

The Mustang Muddle

The Falcon hasn’t been part of the Australian marketplace since Ford ended production in October 2017, but the FG X Supercar will race on until the end of 2018 at the least. Will it be replaced by the Mustang? The saga continues...

Supercars Road Relevance

The ‘win on Sunday, sell on Sunday’ mantra was once a vital ingredient in the success of Australian touring cars. But, with the link between Supercars and what you see on the showroom floor growing ever more tenuous, things have changed.

Big Bash Supercars

Australian sporting codes are busily creating shortened versions of their games to replicate the success of cricket’s Big Bash League, including the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.