Gear shift

The 2023 Supercar Championship has upped the muscle with the GEN3 cars. The Mustangs and Camaros reignite the Ford-Chevrolet Touring Car Australia rivalry of old, and give Supercars teams a new challenge as they chase racing immortality.

The new Gen3 cars showcase one of Supercars’ biggest changes in recent history. The Mustang and Camaro both provide a much different design overall to the Gen2 cars, opting closer to their on-road compatriots.

We say farewell to five-litre V8 engines in exchange for a single-cam engine with two valves per cylinder, and downforce is also drastically reduced – by nearly 70 per cent in some cases.

For Tickford racing Rookie Declan Fraser, the switch to Gen3 comes as he shifts from a successful Super2 stint to the big time.

“Coming over from Super2 may not have been as big a jump for me compared to the other guys already in the main series,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s easier. These are a completely different beast to what anyone’s ever driven.

“There was so much talk around how they would handle and how loose they’d be, and it was all true. They’re absolute animals to drive, and that’s what’s so fun. You go out there and race hard. You’ve really got to look after the tyres.”

Blanchard Racing Team owner and former Supercars driver Tim Blanchard said the challenge in making such a massive change in fact made it an enjoyable transition.

“We were lucky we were able to leverage the resources of the CoolDrive business to assist in sourcing the parts and limiting the supply-chain issues everyone is facing,” he said.

“Combine that with a dedicated crew that really worked hard and gave up their Christmas break, and we were able to be the first team to hit the track with a Gen3 car at Winton.”

The first full race for the Gen3s at Newcastle was a baptism of fire for all teams as they got to grips with the cars.

It was an even steeper curve for Declan whose debut was the Newcastle 500.

“You only get to make your debut one time, and Newcastle was one of the most brutal initiations in my lifetime,” he said.

Tim said for his pit crew, like others, it was the first time working on an entirely different car.

“They have had to learn a completely new car which many haven’t done for a long time,” he said. “As a category we are now working through the process of understanding where improvements can be made to make the cars easier to work on, and also cheaper, as a number of things - such as the price of materials – has changed since the Gen3 project started.

The season has seen teams try out their new rides on a variety of tracks, including the Newcastle Street Circuit and Australian

Declan said with the Gen3 cars having such a massive change in aerodynamics, a track like AGP made things significantly more interesting for drivers.

“They have so much less aero(dynamics) and it’s such an aero-dependent track,”

Declan said this altered the tactics for when he’s out on the track.

“You can’t make these quick adjustments, what you’ve got at the start of the race is what you have for whole race,” he said.

“The team’s gotta focus on the the car is perfect from the get-go, especially something to take into account.

“It will have an impact on strategy at the fuel races,” he said.

“Another difference is the wheel nut. It is a different design to previous years to hopefully allow us to change to electric wheel guns in the future. The new design has been a little problematic at the first two events, which has meant stops haven’t been as smooth as previously seen in Supercar racing.

“At the AGP we introduced a new wheelnut design which was a good improvement, so hopefully we will be on top of that issue soon. It will be interesting throughout the year to see if there are differences in strategy on tyres too, with less downforce and the car sliding more.

“We might see more tyre degradation at some tracks which might change the strategy to previous years.

“This is still a bit of an unknown.”

With the bulk of the season yet to come, the road ahead will be interesting for Supercars teams to weather.

But one thing’s for sure: it’s going to be a helluva ride for both teams and fans.

“I think everyone is aligned in saying the cars look much better, sound great and are fast,” Tim said. “So give it a few months to learn the cars and I think it will be a positive step forward for the category.”