The delayed build of the 2023 Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang has seen Supercars teams across the grid collaborate as they push to get their cars completed.
Last week, the engine ‘lotteries’ were held for both Ford and Chevrolet teams, a process in which Supercars randomly allocates a race engine for each competitor (team) to avoid any perceived or real bias.
For Gen3, Supercars switches from multiple engine suppliers to a single source for each make – Herrod Performance in the case of Ford engines, with KRE Engines building the Chevrolet V8.
Rob Herrod explained the build process and delivery procedure to Speedcafe.com at the 2022 Repco Bathurst 1000, which includes the engines going to Supercars-appointed Cragstead Race Engines for dyno ‘validation’ before teams become responsible for collecting their Gen3 powerplants.
“Our first engine has arrived with us at the race team, which was LTR-10 assigned for Mark Winterbottom’s car, and we’re expecting Scott’s [Pye] first engine to arrive shortly as well,” said Team 18 Team Manager, Bruin Beasley.
“From here it’s all systems go to bolt the remaining parts together before we show off these cars to the rest of the world.”
The issue across all Supercars teams, regardless of being Chevrolet or Ford or where they’re based, has been the ‘remaining parts’ supply. It’s here that rival teams have come together in a common effort to see the Gen3 cars on track.
“It’s been a real collaborative effort between all the teams, we’re working together in any way we can to get these cars ready to hit the track,” said Beasley.
“Being a part of such a large organisation that is the Waverley Forklifts Group, we were able to coordinate the logistics this week to bring the Chevrolet engines from KRE down here as well as some of the controlled parts for the other teams.
“We even leant BJR [Brad Jones Racing] an engine box so they could acquire it safely on their end, so it’s little things like that which go a long way to bringing these cars to life.
“From the outside the fans might not see how much the teams are helping each other in the process to get the cars ready, but we’re only too happy to put the sport first when it comes to getting the show on the road for the first round in Newcastle.”
Discussion about this post