Supercars team bosses have expressed mixed opinions on the championship’s licencing rules in the wake of Motorsport Australia’s decision to abolish the Superlicence.
The Superlicence was introduced in 2017 as a means of keeping inexperienced drivers out of the championship but evolved into a messy, two-step system whereby, in recent years, Supercars came to impose its own requirements above those set by Motorsport Australia.
Super2 has become a particular bone of contention, with Supercars’ licencing requirements making a season in the second tier virtually compulsory.
Now, Motorsport Australia has decided to abolish the Superlience from 2024, on the basis that a relatively new rule banning provisional licence holders from driving vehicles such as Supercars is sufficiently rigorous for its purposes.
Ironically, Supercars itself had recently relaxed its own requirements such that the top performers in Super3 and Carrera Cup would need only complete three Super2 rounds to be eligible to race in the Repco Supercars Championship.
It is a change which has paved the way for Kai Allen, for example, to start this year’s Repco Bathurst 1000 in a Dick Johnson Racing wildcard entry, notwithstanding he remains a Dunlop Super2 Series rookie.
DJR Team Principal Ben Croke supports an ongoing Super2 requirement, albeit less strict than it was until recently.
“I like the fact that we have this pathway system,” he said.
“Supercars is our product and all the teams are well-invested in it, so to have the pathway system where they need to be able to have done some Super3 or Super2 to be able to hop into these cars, I think I really liked that.
“But, it probably was too strict. I think what it’s loosened up to now is probably okay.”
Grove Racing owner Stephen Grove, who fields one of three rookies in this year’s Championship field in Matt Payne, has a different view on the importance of Super2.
“I’m probably the opposite,” he remarked.
“I don’t like the system. We had it firsthand with Matt, where we had to run him though Super2.
“I think some of the overseas racing and some of the Porsche racing is underestimated. You look at the guys that have gone through Supercup and Porsche Cup, they’re the best GT racers in the world.
“I just would hate us to see us limit getting those sort of people, the Matty Campbells. I mean, he probably would have always gone – Matty – but I think it’s important that we bring youth through and I think they need to work out which is the right pathway for them, or else we won’t get youth coming through. They’ll all go overseas, and then they’ll come back, which we’ve seen.
“I think that the [Motorsport Australia] rule changing hasn’t really changed anything at this stage because you’ve still got to abide by Supercars; it’s just Motorsport Australia distancing themselves from that.
“We had a lot of discussions with Motorsport Australian over Matt Payne and they were concerned about the process, and they did want to distance themselves.
“So, it’s up to Supercars, now, to see what they do.”
Triple Eight Race Engineering Team Principal Jamie Whincup noted that Super2 is less relevant a pathway while it is substantially different in vehicle specification from the Gen3 cars which now populate the Championship.
“I agree with both these guys actually,” he said.
“We need a system in place. You can’t just throw anybody out there at any stage; you need a licensing system.
“Was it too strict? Potentially. You don’t necessarily have to do Super2 or Super3, especially in Gen3, now the cars are changing again.
“No, there’s high-quality categories all over the world that certainly somebody needs to rank the quality of and then have a numbering system or a points system and then if you’re eligible, you’re eligible.
“So, I think we’ve made an improvement. Can it get better, as Steve says? Yeah, for sure. We’ll keep moving forward and keep improving it over time.”
Supercars is reviewing its position in light of the Motorsport Australia decision.
Discussion about this post