The Supercars grid made it through its Newcastle pressure test surprisingly unscathed, but there was no shortage of storylines for the lack of carnage.
The reigning champion disqualified and embarking on a one-man post-race protest, mixed podiums and unpredictable form, the rise of midfield teams under new rules — Newcastle’s return to the calendar gave the sport plenty to think about.
But while some maximised their chances on a random weekend, not everyone nailed the round. Some made a real mess of it. One team even managed to do both — it was that sort of event.
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HIT: CHAZ MOSTERT STARTING ON THE RIGHT FOOT
For the second year in succession Chaz Mostert leaves the first round of the year with the championship lead.
He’ll be hoping that’s where the similarities with 2022 end.
There’s reason for hope on that count. His Newcastle weekend was satisfyingly consistent, with a pair of top-10 qualifying results and back-to-back second places. On a weekend during which most teams experienced fluctuating form, Mostert’s car was a predictable frontrunner.
Enjoyable too was that the 30-year-old was willing to get his elbows out in his duel with Shane van Gisbergen. Really the cause was lost by the time the T8 driver was behind him thanks to the tyre disparity, but Mostert’s willingness to bump and rub his aggressively postured rival is what we want to see — and what will be needed in a title battle with the reigning champ.
HIT: SHANE VAN GISBERGEN’S ON-TRACK DOMINANCE
Ask yourself if you’re truly surprised to see Van Gisbergen listed as one of the first big winners of the year under new regulations.
If Gen3 is a rule set for a back-to-basics car, did we really have any reason to think SVG would suddenly struggle or fall back into the pack?
This is a driver who’s been quick in virtually every other category he’s tried. He’s adaptable thanks to his superb feel for machinery. You could almost say the rules were made for him.
And he was a hit in more ways than one, breaking out some of his trademark on-track aggression on his way past Chaz Mostert for victory on Sunday. He didn’t have to hit the WAU car; his tyres were good enough to get him past eventually. But it was his first reminder of the season of who’s boss on track.
He may not have officially won on Saturday, but two dominant performances say more than the points table one round into the season.
SVG wins Supercars season opener | 01:11
MISS: SHANE VAN GISBERGEN’S POST-RACE SHUTDOWN
But of course SVG spoiled what had been a powerful weekend on the track with a bizarre Sunday night media shutdown.
In an extremely limited explanation, the reigning champion suggested it had to do with apparent repercussions for criticising the new cars the day before.
“I said a lot of stuff yesterday, tried to open up a bit more, and maybe it’s bit me in the arse, so I just focus on the driving,” he said. “I said the truth about the cars, I guess. I tried to be honest. It goes down the wrong way, so I just focus on my driving.”
Earlier in the weekend he’d said the new cars were “probably worse” at following closely because the sliding generated by the lack of downforce meant the tyres overheat more readily. He also complained about cabin heat.
He wouldn’t answer questions from commendably persistent moderator Chad Neylon about who was pressuring him over his comments.
If SVG has been pressured by administrators to keep quiet — and the Supercars has reportedly denied it censured him — it would be a shortsighted move that denies the series some crucial colour. Sport needs characters, both heroes and villains.
That said, whatever his justification, there are better ways to make a stand than a media strike. The words of a reigning world champion carry weight regardless of whether some people would prefer not to hear them. It’s a shame he’s chosen not to embrace that role.
SVG ‘disappointing behaviour’ post race | 03:59
MISS: DICK JOHNSON RACING FOR BARELY SHOWING UP
It was easy to forget DJR was even in Newcastle this weekend. Barely seen on television when not in the fence, hardly troubling the top-10 shootout and finishing Sunday with both cars a lap down and buried n the points is a shockingly anonymous start to the season for one of the sport’s grandees.
Both cars. A lap down. Remarkable.
This is the homologation Ford team, don’t forget. Of all the Mustang squads, DJR ought to be leading the way. Will Davison was one of last year’s top qualifiers. Anton de Pasquale has been widely anointed as a future champion.
The team’s best result for the weekend was Davison’s 11th place on Saturday. It actually went downhill from there, with 16th and 19th to show for Sunday’s efforts.
There’s no doubt the drawn-out testing program for Gen3 took a toll on DJR as the responsible Ford representative, preventing it from fully focusing on its own 2023 program. But the same can be said of Triple Eight, which even had to make bodywork adjustments just days before the first race.
The good news — in a sense — is that Newcastle is among the most extreme outlying circuits on the calendar. If there was a particular discomfort about the car around this layout, it’s unlikely to be replicated next time out in Melbourne.
But the scale of this disappointment is alarming and well beneath DJR’s standing.
HIT: PREMIAIR RACING BEATING THE HOMOLOGATION TEAM
What a superb weekend for PremiAir racing in just its second season in the top tier and on the first weekend of a new set of rules.
James Golding, drafted into the squad partway through last year, looks like he’s really hitting his straps after strong improvement late in 2022, and in Tim Slade the team has a veteran campaigner to help steer progress.
That combination clicked to great effect in Newcastle, with two dual shootout appearances and a double top-10 on Sunday.
Sunday’s fourth and ninth was particularly impressive considering the team was one of the few mid-grid outfits to strike that difficult compromise between qualifying and race pace.
And it’s doubly impressive considering on Saturday Slade got ahead of one Triple Eight car on the grid, while on Sunday Golding was ahead of both — no mean feat considering PremiAir buys turnkey cars from T8.
The challenge for PremiAir will be to keep it up, but all the same, team owner Peter Xiberras’s ambitious plans to haul the team forward took a considerable step this weekend.
SVG wins first race of new Supercar era | 01:16
MISS: TRIPLE EIGHT MISREADING THE RULES
What a waste of a dominant one-two finish in the opening race of this rules set, thrown away to a misplaced cold box.
Bolting one of the cooling systems to the wrong side of the driver in the cockpit must rank highly among the least interesting reasons to be thrown out of a race.
It’s especially disappointing considering that Triple Eight took a verbal agreement from the head of motorsport as permission despite motor racing being among the most document-dependent sports in the world — particularly considering said documentation makes this rule so clear that several teams lodged protests on Saturday night.
Triple Eight is appealing the double disqualification, but given the breach intersects a rule about the safety layout of the cockpit, it’s difficult to imagine the team being successful on anything other than a technicality.
HIT: EREBUS LEADING THE TEAMS CHAMPIONSHIP
On a weekend during which consistency was difficult to achieve, Erebus was the least inconsistent team on the grid to walk away as the team championship leader after one round — not bad with results as relatively unspectacular as a single podium, a fourth, a sixth and a 13th. Still, it was the only team to record three top-10 finishes across the weekend after Triple Eight’s disqualification.
Can it kick on from here? There’s clearly potential. Erebus has been threatening to break through to the front for a couple of years now, and it clearly struck on a couple of effective car configurations during the weekend, albeit not one that could be quick in both qualifying and the race.
But for now there’ll be satisfaction that the team made it through Gen3’s baptism of fire in Newcastle most cleanly out of all its rivals.