Triple Eight’s defection to Ford has blown a big hole in the General’s ranks and left questions over whether Camaros will feature at the front of the field.

GM responded to what it described as a blindsiding by Triple Eight just a day before the January 31 announcement with a number of key signings.

They included poaching tech whiz Jeromy Moore, retaining Triple Eight stalwart Craig Lowndes and locking down engine supplier KRE.

However, its replacement homologation squad, Team 18, remains with just one victory from 10 seasons as a standalone outfit – a far cry from Triple Eight’s record.

Erebus Motorsport, Matt Stone Racing and PremiAir Racing round out the GM ranks, with Brad Jones Racing having defected to Toyota.

GM has expressed plans to implement a data sharing ‘alliance’ between its teams next season, although how many will opt into the program remains to be seen.

Asked on the KTM Summer Grill if GM can still be a winner in 2026, Bala said: “Yeah absolutely.

“I mean, if anything, we’ve shown how competitive we really are, and that we mean business.

“We know we have a lot of work to do that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, and we are very self aware of that as well.

“But like we’ve always said, we’re working towards the long game here. We’ve got a long term strategy. We consider it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

“But yes, we absolutely are expecting and believe we will see some success next year, for sure.”

An unresolved element of GM’s fightback strategy involves securing a star driver, with Bathurst 1000 winner Matt Payne known to be in the marques crosshairs.

The company is eager to place Payne at Team 18 in 2027, but whether he is free to leave Grove Racing before ’28 is currently unclear.

GM’s 2026 driver line-up consists of Anton De Pasquale, David Reynolds, Cooper Murray, Jobe Stewart, Jack Le Brocq, Zach Bates, Jayden Ojeda and Declan Fraser.

De Pasquale (9 wins), Reynolds (8) and Le Brocq (2) are the only Supercars race winners among them, with the remainder in either their first or second seasons.