A non-championship ‘Kings of the West’ showcase for Trans Am/TA2 cars will replace the TCR Australia Series round at the event.

TCR had been set to open its season at Wanneroo before pulling the pin late last month amid the latest in a series of calendar changes for the struggling two-litre class.

Trans Am and TA2 are meanwhile going from strength to strength, now under one ownership group and attracting 41 cars to its recent combined round at Bathurst.

Expectations for the hastily assembled Perth field are more modest, with between 12 and 15 of the V8-powered machines expected to front.

That’ll include locally based cars and those from series co-owners Mark Crutcher, Graham Cheney and Paul Hadley.

“It’s fantastic for our WA customers to be able to appear on a Supercars event,” TA2 category manager Matt MacKelden told Speedcafe.

“The enthusiasm when we first reached out was immediate and we’re looking forward to putting on a good show.”

The June 6-8 Perth Supercars event takes place a week after the TA2 Series round at Sydney Motorsport Park and two weeks before Trans Am supports Supercars at Hidden Valley.

Trans Am is also set to appear at The Bend and Adelaide Grand Final Supercars events later this year.

HCC, the group that now owns both the TA2 and Trans Am classes, has meanwhile confirmed the purchase of the latter from the Australian Racing Group is now complete.

“All the formal paperwork with Motorsport Australia has been signed regarding the transfer of ownership, settlement has been completed, and we are now focussed on growing both the Trans AM and TA2 Muscle Car platforms,” said Crutcher.

“We have already invested in a much larger trailer to service both series on track with parts and components, expanded staffing where required, ordered more new cars from Howe Engineering in Michigan, confirmed supply of Chevrolet crate engines as well as Holinger Engineering for the supply of an optional gearbox to the original G Force for both series.

“My role is to head up the new entity and continue the expanding trajectory for both categories and as well as being a quick driver, Graham has a good engineering and racing head and will support the technical side with ongoing product development.

“Paul brings an enormous breadth of business skills to the table, I believe we are a very complementary team.”