While Erebus has shut down its customer chassis build program, Mount Gambier-based fabricator James White has already started on the first of two new cars for next year.
Erebus CEO Barry Ryan told Speedcafe the first will be assigned to Cooper Murray, who is set to return for a second season with the Melbourne-based squad.
“We’ve got a chassis getting built by Christmas but we’re not going to rush to put it on track if we don’t need to, so maybe after New Zealand it might debut,” said Ryan.
“There’s no rush but we’ll get that one online and then maybe another later in the year.
“We’d probably give the first one to Cooper, just for seniority, but it doesn’t really matter – there’s nothing wrong with the cars we’ve got.”
Rookie teammate Jobe Stewart has been involved in the build of Erebus’ Supercars in recent seasons, painting chassis at his father’s nearby business and helping at White’s workshop.
Ryan, though, is keen for Stewart to focus on his job as a driver next season, which includes relocating from Mount Gambier.
“He’s moving to Melbourne with his girlfriend, so that he’s based near us,” said Ryan of Stewart, 21.
“His dad is a bit sad that he’s not going to be his apprentice panel beater anymore, but it’s what he needs to do. He needs to leave the nest and be his own man.”
Erebus will meanwhile farewell Jack Le Brocq at this weekend’s Adelaide Grand Final before the driver departs for Matt Stone Racing.
The team ran a revised engineering line-up at Sandown last month that involved Ryan stepping away from race engineer duties on Le Brocq’s car.
Ryan affirmed data engineer Aidan Graham will again lead Le Brocq’s entry in Adelaide ahead of a planned full-time step into the role next year.
The team wants to promote Murray’s current engineer Wayne Mackie to an overarching technical role but is unlikely to do so in the short term.
“Wayne and Cooper have got a good relationship, so it’s probably silly to break that up at the moment,” said Ryan.
“We’ll keep it going for at least another 12 months and let the other two work together as an engineering group.
“I can be in the background still. At Sandown it freed me up to make some decisions, it was a relief to not be engineering.”
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