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Ipswich marked the final round of Supercars’ new Super Sprint wildcard initiative.
Introduced this year, the concept offers aspiring Supercars drivers a chance to tackle the main game via a series of wildcard entries at Super Sprint rounds at Barbagallo, Winton, Hidden Valley and Queensland Raceway.
The scheme was open to Dunlop Super2 Series teams and drivers competing in the series that are also eligible for a CAMS Superlicence.
A group of five drivers took up the option to join the main game field at three of the four available events.
Matt White Motorsport fielded Shae Davies (Winton, Queensland Raceway) and team-mate Jack Le Brocq (Hidden Valley Raceway, Queensland Raceway) in a move that also saw the Nissan Altima team make their sprint round debut in the category.
Matt Stone Racing also embarked on its maiden appearance in Supercars when Todd Hazelwood ran at Queensland Raceway.
Brad Jones Racing entered Macauley Jones at Winton and Hidden Valley Raceway, while Garry Rogers Motorsport gave James Golding outings at Winton and Queensland Raceway.
It appears the scheme has been universally well received with the wildcards providing a glimpse into future talent, while adding to the overall Supercars spectacle.
At Queensland Raceway the addition of four wildcards saw the field swell to 30 cars, which is the largest Supercars has seen since at a sprint round since Darwin in 2009.
The wildcards offered an insight into the future talent in the Supercars ranks through the performances.
Golding produced the best result of all the wildcards with an impressive run to 16th in Race 9 at Winton, while Hazelwood, Davies, Le Brocq and Jones all managed to break into the top 20 at least once.
What do you think of the wildcard initiative?
Cast your vote below in this week’s Pirtek Poll.
