THE GEN3 ERA ARRIVES

Ford versus Holden becomes Ford versus Chevrolet with the Camaro replacing the Commodore to take on the Mustang under the new Gen3 regulations, starting with the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship.

Not since the move from the international-based Group A rules to the home-grown Group 3A V8 formula in 1993 has the Australian Touring Car Championship/Supercars undergone such a massive change as it has in 2023.

The four-door sedans that were a mainstay of the V8 era are gone, replaced by two-door coupes. With Holden and the Commodore retired, Chevrolet and the Camaro replace them under the General Motors banner to take the fight to Ford and the Mustang.

The new cars are visibly very different from their predecessors, more like the road-going versions of the cars they are based on, with a focus on increased road relevance, cost cutting and improved racing. The latter will be achieved with a major reduction in downforce, by more than 50 percent, with drivers reporting a more aggressive and harder to control car.

The Camaro and Mustang rivalry headlined the final years of Improved Production era of the Australian Touring Car Championship in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While the Blue Oval remains, Holden fans will switch their allegiances to Chevrolet.

There will be 14 Camaros and 11 Mustangs on the grid in 2023. Walkinshaw Andretti United’s switch from Holden to Ford evens up the manufacturer representatives on the grid, with the long-time Holden team following in the footsteps of Grove Racing and the Blanchard Racing Team in moving across to the Blue Oval in recent seasons.

Triple Eight Race Engineering and Dick Johnson Racing were the homologation teams for Chevrolet and Ford respectively. There’s a four-car team for each manufacturer with four Camaros from Brad Jones Racing and four Mustangs from Tickford Racing, while the Blanchard Racing Team remains the only single-car team in Supercars.

There’s little movement on the driver front with Tim Slade (PremiAir Racing) and Todd Hazelwood (Blanchard Racing Team) switching to new teams, while Declan Fraser, Cameron Hill and Matthew Payne step up from the Dunlop Super2 Series.

In terms of endurance co-drivers, there’s been big changes with reigning Repco Bathurst 1000 winner Garth Tander moving to Grove Racing, Richie Stanaway replacing him at Triple Eight Race Engineering and Lee Holdsworth back at Walkinshaw Andretti United.

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will be contested over 28 races/12 events, with nearly 5400 kilometres of racing.

The Newcastle 500 kicks off the season after a three-year absence on the schedule, while Sandown reverts back to its traditional 500-kilometre endurance format as the precursor to the Repco Bathurst 1000. It means there will be multiple endurance events for the first time since 2019. New Zealand drops off the schedule with the closure of Pukekohe Park Raceway, while Winton is also omitted.

Sandown and Bathurst will be two-driver per car single races; Newcastle, Townsville, Sydney, Gold Coast and Adelaide will be two-race events; Perth, Tasmania, Darwin and Tailem Bend will host three races; and Melbourne will feature four races.

The following is your guide to Supercars in 2023.