At the end of Gen3’s first season, the Supercars series gets its wish for a title down to the wire.
It so easily couldn’t have happened. Rules changes have a habit of breaking up the field. All it takes is for one team to nail the brief and run away with the championship, a close season entirely dependent on whether or not both teammates can go the distance.
But in 2023 not only have we enjoyed a multi-driver, multi-team battle, but we’ve got upstarts Erebus taking the fight to the establishment, leading Triple Eight on both title tables and looking good to convert.
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Erebus has never finished higher than fourth in the teams standings and fifth in the individual title battle. It had previously won only eight races ever.
But this weekend it has an opportunity to go from forlorn hunter to dominant hunted and change the game.
A CHAMPIONSHIP DOWN TO THE WIRE
After 11 rounds and 26 races, both the drivers championship and the teams title are going down to the wire in Adelaide.
Title leader Brodie Kostecki leads reigning champion Shane van Gisbergen by 131 points ahead of the finale. He needs just 20 more points to seal the deal on Saturday evening with one race to spare. The permutations are in his favour.
It’s a relatively comfortable position to be in, but the double-edged sword of a two-race weekend means a low score or non-finish on Saturday could blow the title fight wide open on Sunday, giving SVG a chance to strike.
The Erebus star will have no motivation to take risks this weekend, however, knowing a pair of 13th-place finishes will be enough to win the title no matter where Van Gisbergen finishes.
The odds of a real disaster are low in ordinary circumstances. Kostecki has had a clean sheet of finishes this year, even when that’s meant trailing near the back of the field with damage.
But title deciders tend to throw up unusual occurrences. You can rule nothing out on the streets of Adelaide.
Erebus, meanwhile, leads Triple Eight by 170 points in the teams championship, a less secure score given the potential for bigger swings with two cars.
The two title-leading teams have been the undisputed leaders in the early days of the Gen3 era — notwithstanding controversy over parity between the Camaro and Mustang machines — and will need to be at their very best to nail the pair of fuel-and-tyres races this weekend.
DICK JOHNSON RACING HITS MEGA MILESTONE
This weekend Dick Johnson Racing hits the remarkable milestone of 500 rounds in the Australian Touring Car Championship, an unprecedented achievement.
Australia’s oldest racing team started life in 1980 with a Ford XD Falcon, the best-known and most important chapter of which was Dick Johnson’s entry at that year’s Bathurst 1000, which was then run as a stand-alone race independent of the championship.
Johnson sensationally qualified on the front row and sprinted to an early advantage but hit a large rock that had rolled onto the track at the Cutting on lap 17. It was the lesser of two evils, the alternative having been to plough into a recovery vehicle moving slowly on track — these being the days before safety cars.
The rock catapulted the car into the barriers, writing off what was at that point the favourite to win the race.
Worse was that Johnson had put his last dollar into the entry, having mortgaged his house to prepare the car, betting he could win the race and establish a racing career for himself.
But rather than a cruel ending, it proved a new beginning.
Television viewers who watched him deliver an emotional interview after the crash began calling the broadcaster pledging money to help Johnson rebuild his car and get back on his feet. Donations were mailed to his house by the truckload.
Ford promised to match every donation dollar for dollar. Johnson ended up with almost $150,000.
Armed with his unexpected war chest, he entered the 1981 championship with his rebuilt Falcon and won on debut on his way to an eight-point championship victory over Peter Brock.
It was a remarkable start to what will become a 500-round, 1030-race history this weekend comprising 148 wins, three teams championships and 10 drivers titles.
Here’s to many more races in this great Australian racing story.
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SHANE VAN GISBERGEN’S LAST WEEKEND
While Van Gisbergen’s biggest contribution to the weekend will be his role in the title battle, the Adelaide 500 will be remembered as his final race in the Supercars, at least for the foreseeable future.
The Kiwi three-time champion will take his final bow on Sunday night to pursue a NASCAR career in the United States, having debuted with a history-making win in Chicago earlier this year.
His 2024 campaign will comprise a tailor-made program spanning the main-game NASCAR Cup series, the second-tier Xfinity series and the pick-up truck series. In 2025 he aims to become a full-time Cup driver and tilt for the title.
In Australia he’ll leave behind a legacy of greatness and at least a little controversy.
His three titles, and in particular his domination of last year’s campaign, establishes him as one of the sport’s all-time greats and among the top 11 drivers in terms of championship victories.
Claiming an against-the-odds fourth title this year would place him among the top eight championship-getters of all time.
But the way SVG has gone about his business hasn’t always been to everyone’s tastes — including at times the series itself.
Some fans have never forgiven him for his shock early retirement at the end of 2012, his promise as Ford’s next star unfulfilled — only to defect to Holden-backed Tekno Autosports the following year. His switch to Triple Eight in 2016 then paid immediate dividends, winning him his first title ahead of Jamie Whincup.
Though he’s tended to shy away from the limelight, he’s never been shy in expressing his opinion. Just this year in Newcastle it got him into hot water with Supercars management, who he said attempted to silence his criticism of the Gen3 car in its first weekend of action.
But it’s that quality that many drivers will lament for leaving the sport.
Van Gisbergen has been a major part of a senior driver group that informally represents driver interests in discussions with the category. Losing his significant voice will be a blow.
“I feel like Shane, probably a couple of rounds ago, probably stepped back from being one of the four [senior] drivers,” Chaz Mostert said, per Speedcafe.
“The way he talks about particular things and words things, we’re definitely losing a pretty strong voice in that point of view, and obviously getting one of the best race car drivers in the world’s opinion.
“I’d say, the last couple of rounds we’re definitely missing Shane in those four guys that talk it out.”
But Van Gisbergen’s onward move presents opportunities too. It gives drivers like Mostert and Cam Waters and Anton de Pasquale, already key leaders in the sport, will attain new seniority to set the driver agenda.
And this may not be the final goodbye anyway. Although the non-stop NASCAR calendar makes co-drive appearances unlikely, SVG has already signalled he may return to the Australian series later in his career.
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DRIVERS MOVING TEAMS AND LEAVING SUPERCARS
Van Gisbergen’s departure has triggered a shuffling of the driver market after the 2024 grid appeared likely to remain largely unchanged.
The Adelaide 500 will be the final dance for several team-driver combinations, some of which have long-term and important relationships.
But first, with one round to go there are still two seats available, both at Brad Jones Racing.
The team had expected to retain its four drivers into 2024, but this week Jack Smith announced he would leave BJR, having decided to “step back” from the sport next season.
Macauley Jones is also yet to be confirmed. Andre Heimgartner and Bryce Fullwood are both under contract.
It could be just the chance needed for a trio of ousted drivers to get themselves back on the grid after the unexpected market shuffle that started with SVG’s surprise departure.
Triple Eight will replace Van Gisbergen with Will Brown, who this weekend will enter his final race for the Erebus team that cut his teeth in the Supercars. Brown briefly led the title standings this year but was undone by a tough Sunday result in Sydney and difficult streak in Tailem Bend.
He’ll start the Adelaide 500 with several competing objectives: to help Erebus seal the teams title, to obey team orders that might help teammate Kostecki to the drivers title, and to beat future teammate Broc Feeney to third on the title table, a position he holds by just nine points.
Brown’s sudden Erebus departure will be filled by two-time race winner Jack Le Brocq in a sort of homecoming to the team that gave him his first main-game co-drive in 2015. He leaves Matt Stone Racing having delivered the team its first Supercars victory, at the Darwin Triple Crown earlier this season.
Le Brocq’s MSR drive was a fortunate off-ramp for Nick Percat, who had his Walkinshaw Andretti United contract left unrenewed after two tough campaigns. The four-time winner will hope the move can revitalise him to his previous loftier status.
WAU will replace Percat with young gun Ryan Wood, a three-time Super2 winner this season.
Tickford, meanwhile, will bid farewell to James Courtney and Declan Fraser, with the team downsizing from four cars to two next year.
Fraser is yet to land a full-time drive for next season, but Courtney will land at Blanchard Racing Team, which will expand from one car to two.
Courtney’s arrival at BRT will oust Todd Hazelwood, who is also without a drive for 2024, with young gun Aaron Love taking the other seat.
This will also be Tickford’s last race with Tim Edwards as team boss after 19 years at the helm. Edwards will become Supercars motorsport general manager from next season, replacing Adrian Burgess. Burgess has somewhat controversially been appointed Team 18 team principal.
Grove will replace David Reynolds with the rejuvenated Bathurst 1000 winner Richie Stanaway next season. Reynolds in turn will move to Team 18, where he will oust Scott Pye, who has found refuge as a Triple Eight co-driver for 2024.
It’s unclear whether the uncontracted Fraser, Hazelwood or even Pye will get a look-in to Brad Jones Racing’s available seats or whether the team will opt for youth, with Super2 title leader Zak Best without a main-game contract for next season.
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HOW CAN I WATCH IT?
The Adelaide 500 is live and ad-break free during racing on Kayo and Fox Sports.
The first 30-minute practice session is from 4:15pm (AEDT) on Thursday
Second practice starts at 1:05pm on Friday, with qualifying for the penultimate race of the season at 6:05pm.
Final practice is at 10:15am on Saturday morning ahead of the top-10 shootout at 12:35pm and the first race at 3:20pm.
Sunday starts with qualifying at 10:45am and the top-10 shootout at 12:35pm, with the final race of the season at 3:15pm.