Triple Eight Race Engineering has revealed a new livery for its Red Bull Ampol Racing entries ahead of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship.
2022 champion Shane van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney shook down the team’s first two Gen3 Chevrolet Camaros earlier this month at Queensland Raceway in a testing livery.
Now, the Peter Hughes-designed race livery has been unveiled, with red replacing white as the secondary colour on Cars #88 and #97.
Team Principal Jamie Whincup spoke on the work which Triple Eight, in addition to its role as the Chevrolet homologation team, has put into the Gen3 project.
“It’s a massively exciting era for the sport,” said the seven-time Supercars champion.
“We’ve been working on this Gen3 project for three years now.
“As soon as Covid hit the world, Triple Eight realised this was the time to develop a new product and we need it as quick as possible. We started the journey then, and here we are now.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the people at Triple Eight. Everyone watching at home will see two cars on track, but the hours, dedication, blood, sweat and tears that have gone into getting those cars on track and giving the drivers the opportunity to showcase that work, it’s without doubt Triple Eight’s biggest achievement – second to none.
“It’s something we’re so proud of and will be a part of our legacy.
“The cars look great. I might be biased, but I think it’s the best-looking livery we’ve had.
“I think if you’re not excited to see that first in Newcastle, then potentially motorsport isn’t for you.
“Every team has had a big reset, and no one knows what’s going to happen around a crazy little street track.
“Debuting new cars with less aerodynamics, bigger horsepower, and lighter weight – there’s so many unknows and that’s what sport’s all about.”
Van Gisbergen also had praise for the hard work which has gone on at Banyo, including the collaborative build of two Camaros also for PremiAir Racing.
“The whole team, chipping in to get these cars ready [for] the last couple of years and then helping get the PremiAir cars ready, like, the guys have done a lot of work and when we rolled out for our first test day, the cars ran faultlessly; it was awesome,” declared #97.
Feeney was a rookie in 2022 but starts the 2023 season as the most recent race winner, and has already clocked up around 300km out of a team total of around 650km on Triple Eight’s shakedown day.
The 19-year-old said, “It’s pretty cool to see my first brand new Gen3 Supercar.
“The cars look awesome this year. I think we needed that big refresher, and the livery looks awesome as well. I’m just really looking forward to getting on track now.
“Both of our cars ran so smoothly at our shakedown at Queensland Raceway. The team has put so much effort in and I can’t emphasise that enough. They had a short summer break and have basically been in the workshop day and night ever since.
“For the cars to run so smoothly was awesome.
“I’m so excited to get to Newcastle – what a place to host the first Gen3 race. It’s one of the toughest tracks on the Supercars calendar.
“I raced in the Toyota 86 category there back in 2018, so it’s been quite a few years since I’ve been there.
“I feel like for every driver out there it’s going to be a big challenge rocking up to such a gnarly track in these brand-new cars, so it’s going to be an exciting weekend.
“The two 250-kilometre races are going to be hard work, but we’re looking forward to putting these cars to the test.”
The 25 full-time entries in the Supercars Championship field will test at Sydney Motorsport Park this Wednesday.
CLICK HERE for more images of Triple Eight’s new livery
The future of Australian Motorsport is here and it’s looking bright! 🤩@shanevg97 & @brocfeeney93 are ready to race in Supercars Gen3 with @redbullau & @AmpolAustralia 💪#RedBullAmpol pic.twitter.com/myHVaMUkUU
— Red Bull Ampol Racing (@redbullampol) February 18, 2023