Supercars targeting third marque for 2022

Supercars is hoping newly revealed Gen3 details will kick start discussions to add a third marque to the championship alongside Chevrolet and Ford in 2022.

In the midst of this year’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 it was announced the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 would join the Supercars Championship in two years’ time.

That coincided with details surrounding the advent of Gen3, which will see a new chassis introduced to the championship among a raft of technical changes.

Included in those is a lower roll hoop and a great emphasis on a race car that bears a greater resemblance to its road-going counterparts.

It is hoped the new-look Supercars will cost significantly less than the current Gen2 product.

It is estimated a current Gen2 car is worth some $600,000 including engine, while a complete Gen3 car is expected to cost less than $350,000.

John Casey, Supercars’ Chief Sales & Marketing, has led the Gen3 project in conjunction with the Supercars Commission and Board.

He said the release of key Gen3 details will allow them to begin discussions with manufacturers with a view to 2022 and beyond.

“That work starts in earnest now in terms of seeing what additional options might be available,” said Casey.

“I think for 2022, I’d be quite happy with a Camaro and a Mustang. I’d like to think there’s a possibility of another brand.

“But at this stage, I’m not in a position to speculate as to whether or not that will happen. But certainly, we’ll start looking at that now in order to kick those conversations off.

“We need to have something substantial. We’re now in a position where our plans and our designs and our ability to describe the car is at a point where we can now go and start to have a sensible conversation and be able to describe the car in sufficient detail so that it can be considered by other brands.”

As it stands, the Camaro will race alongside the Ford Mustang.

The homologation of those two cars is being handled by Triple Eight Race Engineering and Dick Johnson Racing respectively.

While there has been little in the way of speculation surrounding interest from other manufacturers, already Kia has knocked back suggestions it might join the championship.

Under the Gen3 model, Supercars plans to acquire intellectual property from manufacturers with a view to homologating the cars in-house in an effort to reduce costs to prospective brands.