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.

While all eyes have been on how the Supercars category adapts to the end of Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore local production and the opening up of engine and body-shape regulations under Gen2, a quiet revolution has been happening within its support categories.

Supercars will now move forward with what’s labelled as the “five pillars” of its future, namely the following five categories:

SUPERCARS

The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship remains at the core of the Supercars business as the premier motorsport category in Australia and with the Bathurst 1000 still the most revered race in the country.

However, concerns remain about how Supercars will move on from V8-powered Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores, which have been the foundation of the series for the last 25 years.

Other manufacturers haven’t rushed in to help fill the void, even with the easier criteria of being able to run non-V8 engines and coupes under Gen2. This leaves the category racing three cars that are no longer sold in Australian showrooms. The survival of the series without manufacturers is, therefore, crucial. But is a privateer formula sustainable with a lack of suitable cars in the marketplace?

There’s also a question mark over how the fan base, so ingrained in supporting Falcon and Commodore V8s, will react to turbocharged imported cars.

If Supercars deems that manufacturers are key to the growth, let alone survival, of the category, aligning it with GT racing seems inevitable because it’s where the manufacturers are racing.

SUPER2