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Supercars’ Gen3 homologation teams have agreed there is “no option” but to make the first test dates at the end of the month, despite stressing how tight it will be.
This year the Repco Supercars Championship enters a new era with the introduction of the Gen3 ruleset.
However, the project has seen its fair share of delays and setbacks as well as a cost blowout, with questions lingering over its timeline.
Teams are currently in the midst of building Chevrolet Camaros or Ford Mustangs to compete this season, which, from the outside, might seem last minute.
However, Supercars management has continued to push the rhetoric that the timeline Gen3 has followed is nothing out of the ordinary, including building cars weeks out from when they are due to be on track.
Testing for Gen3 was originally slated to take place in December of 2022, though has been pushed back to the end of January.
The opening round of the 2023 Supercars season is scheduled for just one month later on the streets of Newcastle from March 10-12.
Speaking on the KTM Summer Grill, Team Principal at Shell V-Power Racing Team, Ben Croke, and Technical Director at Triple Eight Race Engineering, Jeromy Moore, (General Motors and Ford homologation teams respectively) laid out the facts around Gen3.
Asked whether making testing is achievable, Croke responded: “There is no option.
“We go racing at Newcastle in a couple of months’ time and there’s testing that needs to be done.
“It’s full steam ahead.”
While the chassis work is largely complete, parts are continuing to roll in, leaving teams with a heavy workload over the summer period.
Moore, who has led much of the chassis design work on Gen3, believes the hard work will pay off.
“It’s still tight — January 30 is still tight,” he said.
“We are doing everything we can to meet that, I’m confident we can.
“The parts are coming in, they are rolling in thick and fast so I’m pretty confident we can get the cars out there on track.
“We have to — we have to do what we can to get them out there; there have been so many delays and pushbacks, we just need ‘this is the line in the sand now’.
“We need to make it happen.”
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