V8 Supercars has announced that all 26 Racing Entitlements Contracts have been entered by today’s deadline ahead of the 2016 season.

The category’s entry deadline was this year moved forward from its traditional December 1, requiring an early commitment from all REC holders.

Today’s cut-off binds RECs to the championship for the 2016 season, although they may still move between teams prior to the championship commencing.

Yet-to-be-confirmed REC movement is expected to include Super Black Racing, which has announced its intention to stay in the sport despite the entry it has been leasing this season returning to DJR Team Penske for its second car.

Several teams are known to have entered their RECs without full funding in place, leaving plenty of scope for change ahead of March’s season-opener.

Next year’s entry consists of all 25 current RECs, plus the ex-James Rosenberg REC purchased by Triple Eight Race Engineering via a tender process earlier this year.

“It’s fantastic to be able to lock in 26 entries for next year already. It’s a tremendous endorsement of V8 Supercars and there’s never been a better time to be involved in the sport,” said V8 Supercars CEO James Warburton.

“We’ve just enjoyed one of the biggest Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 events in history and now look forward to next week’s Castrol Gold Coast 600 with an expected attendance of up to 200,000 fans over the weekend.

“We recently announced a revamped and expanded calendar for next year that will build even more momentum for the sport and we look forward to a strong finish to 2015 and an even bigger year in 2016.”

Rosenberg handed his REC back at the end of last year, 12 months after similar moves from Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, Triple F Racing and Tony D’Alberto Racing.

LDM eventually received its second entry back after a lengthy legal battle, while the ex-Triple F and TDR entries remain with V8 Supercars and will not be reactivated for 2016.