Small grid expected for Super2 season-opener

The Dunlop Super2 Series field currently sits at 15 cars for Round 1 of the season at the Superloop Adelaide 500, Speedcafe.com understands.

A recent version of the entry list includes multiple ‘TBAs’, meaning the actual figure could be even lower by the time competitors front in the Adelaide Parklands.

MW Motorsport could again start the season with an all-changed driver line-up, as it did when it won the series with Bryce Fullwood last year.

It has attracted Thomas Randle, a Super2 race winner last year with Tickford, and welcomes Zak Best from its V8 Touring Car program but the driver of its third Nissan is understood to be not yet locked in.

Randle has been cleared to compete in Adelaide ahead of chemotherapy for testicular cancer, while Best was a front-runner in the third tier in a Project Blueprint FG Falcon for the last two years.

MWM will be the only team running Altimas after all with Kelly Racing having opted to instead sell the cars which it had converted for racing in Super2.

Anderson Motorsport has made the move up from Super3 to field a VF Commodore in the second tier, with its driver understood to be close to being announced.

Zane Morse is another entirely new entrant, coming from the Toyota 86 Racing Series to contest Super2 in a VF.

Matt Chahda Motorsport is believed to still be working on filling its second FGX Falcon as part of a planned expansion of its squad beyond the single car it had entered for Matt Chahda himself.

The rest of the field is effectively finalised.

Triple Eight Race Engineering is running the one VF for 2019 Australian Formula Ford champion Angelo Mouzouris, with Kurt Kostecki moving his Commodore back to Kostecki Brothers Racing.

There are also set to be two Triple Eight-built cars out of Eggleston Motorsport, for Brodie Kostecki and Jack Perkins, with the possibility of a third at selected rounds.

Tickford Racing and Brad Jones Racing are each running a car for a Super3 graduate, with series winner Broc Feeney at the former and the winner of the last two races of 2019, Josh Fife, at the latter.

The de facto Erebus junior team, Image Racing, retains Jordan Boys and has Supercars Championship driver in waiting, Will Brown, placed in its other VF.

The slim entry list is such despite Supercars’ move to reduce the burden of contesting a full season by dropping a round, and to further incentivise prospective competitors by adding half a million dollars in prizemoney.

A difficult commercial climate is believed to be responsible, at least in part, for the size of the grid, which matches that of the latter rounds of 2019.

It should also be noted that four drivers, including Fullwood, have made the move from Super2 to the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship this year.

Of the Super2’s class of 2020, at least five drivers (Feeney, Mouzouris, Morse, Fife, Best) are eligible for the $100,000 for top rookie, while the series winner will receive $400,000 for the express purpose of securing a drive in the Supercars Championship in 2021.

Most teams are expected to test today ahead of the first two practice sessions of the year in Adelaide on Thursday, February 20.

Entry list: Round 1, Adelaide Parklands Circuit Provisional