The decision comes after a single year back as a standalone competition, which was run on the Shannons SpeedSeries programme.
That followed three years as a class within the Dunlop Super2 Series field under the ‘Super3’ moniker, which was also used as the brand for V8TC in 2019 when it became a regular Supercars support category.
Super3 continued as a class within Super2 last year, with the original ‘V8 Touring Cars’ name revived for what served as something of a fourth tier for Supercars vehicles.
However, due to a lack of numbers, V8TC will not proceed in 2024.
“There’s just not enough cars out there to stand alone the way it is, so that’s sort of where that is,” Barry Rogers, ARG’s majority shareholder, confirmed to Speedcafe.
Prospective teams had been issued a draft calendar late last year, outlining a season comprised of a non-points outing with Combined Sedans on the Bathurst 12 Hour undercard before four SpeedSeries rounds.
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V8TC had been aiming for 10 cars to commit to those four rounds, but races last year were typically contested by six to eight cars, rising to 10 for the season finale at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International.
One competitor cited cost – said to be higher than entering Super3 – and a lack of ‘love’ from ARG relative to that given to categories such as TCR and Trans Am as the reason for the lack of interest.
With no V8TC, there is presently no dedicated place for Supercars older than the very latest Project Blueprint vehicles to race.
The Super3 class of Super2 is open to both pre-Gen2 Car of the Future machinery and some Blueprint vehicles, but only the VE Commodore and FG Falcon in the case of the latter.
V8TC, on the other hand, featured BA and BF Falcons – and even the Beikoff AU which has now developed a cult following – during 2023, with eligibility all the way down to the EF Falcon and VP Commodore.
However, the category may not be lost entirely.
Rogers named regular drivers Chris Smerdon and Jim Pollicina as the figures who had been spearheading a push for a Touring Car Masters-style buyout of V8TC from ARG.
According to sources, their plans for reviving a V8TC-style series in 2025, which are not necessarily over, include the idea of returning to the Supercars support bill, on alternate events to those at which Super2 feature.
It has also been put to Speedcafe that, with Super3 dropping to five cars by the end of 2023 but strong interest in Super2 as a class, there would be more sense in again splitting the two up and essentially turning Super3 back into what it was in 2019.
Back then, future Jamie Whincup successor Broc Feeney made a name for himself by winning the series in an FG Falcon run by Paul Morris Motorsport, in a field which also included drivers such as Jayden Ojeda and Zak Best.
Jude Bargwanna won the 2023 V8TC title in an FG Falcon fielded by Anderson Motorsport.
The 2024 SpeedSeries season starts at Sandown on February 9-11 while Round 1 of Super2 supports the Thrifty Bathurst 500 a fortnight later.
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