Following today’s announcement by Supercars that the ZB Commodore and Car of the Future Ford Mustang will be the only models eligible to compete for the 2023 Dunlop Super2 Series – V8 Touring Cars management has in turn announced it will compete as a stand alone series in 2023.
After today’s Supercars announcement, this move will also see current Super2 cars filtering down to Super3 with an expectation of bigger fields across both combined categories.
The changes will see the Car of the Future models from Holden, Ford, Nissan, Mercedes and Volvo become eligible for Dunlop Super3 competition for the first time, alongside the existing Project Blueprint-specification VE II Holden Commodore and FG Ford Falcon.
Super3 will continue to race on a combined grid with Dunlop Super2 in 2023.
With this confirmation, management of the V8 Touring Cars National Series have announced that the ‘older spec Supercars’ will return in 2023 as a stand-alone category.
The reborn V8 Touring Cars Series will remain exclusively for pre-COTF Supercars up to and including the FG Falcon and VE II Commodore.
The series will run a stand-alone calendar and will retain its Motorsport Australia Series status, as well as continuing to award Superlicense points.
News regarding calendar placement, tyre regulations and supplier and race formats will be announced in due course.
Australian Racing Group [ARG] will continue to work with Supercars to manage the Super3 Series, while also managing the V8 Touring Cars Series in 2023.
Speaking about the changes to the series for 2023, Liam Curkpatrick, the category Manager of Super3 / V8 Touring Cars said:
“We have been well into the planning to re-establish the V8 Touring Cars Series as a stand-alone entity for some time, ” said Curkpatrick.
“This announcement offers competitors with pre-Car of the Future Supercars the best of both worlds: They can compete in Super3 competition alongside the Super2 cars, and they can also race among cars of a similar specification in a stand-alone category.
“This is essentially the return of the series’ that grew and evolved into what became Super3 in 2019.
“V8 Touring Cars will have its own calendar, race formats and broadcast package, offering a great place for both young drivers progressing up the ladder or those who just enjoy racing these sensational cars.” Curkpatrick confirmed.
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THERE is potential for the Dunlop Super2/Super3 Series to be setting the pace at 2023 events, with Supercars insisting it won’t slow hand-me-down Gen2 machinery next year.
It’s not entirely clear yet what sort of lap times can be expected from the incoming Gen3 Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro, given the vastly different characteristics they’ll bear compared to their predecessors.
Among the chief factors is a notable aero cut, which should see cars slower through high-speed corners but faster on straights thanks to less drag.
Either way, Supercars appears comfortable with the possibility that its feeder series cars could outpace its main game entries.
The current Ford Mustang and Holden ZB Commodore will fill the 2023 Super2 field, with the Nissan Altima, Falcon FG X and VF Commodore shuffling down to the third tier.
“They’re going down as they are,” Supercars head of motorsport Adrian Burgess told V8 Sleuth, with regards to the Gen2 cars.
“We’re not focusing on it. For us it doesn’t matter, the only change they’ll get is that they’ll keep the Albins gearbox; the Xtrac will stay in main game.
“So it will go down as a complete car minus the gearbox but there’s already a good supply of Albins gearboxes and we didn’t want to put more cost into the DS2 series.
“But this [Gen3] car will be as quick as our current car, maybe even quicker.
“At Sandown I think we were doing mid-8s and main game was doing mid-7s in quali spec and we haven’t even given them to the teams yet to put their own set-ups in the car.”
Supercars has remained adamant that improving the quality of racing is more important for its new cars than outright lap speed.
“We don’t want it to be slower by design, so we’re not trying to make it slower by design but equally if it’s line-ball, it’s not a focus,” said Burgess.
“It’s about better racing, quality of racing.”
Triple Eight Race Engineering, Tickford Racing, Walkinshaw Andretti United, Erebus Motorsport [affiliated with Image Racing], Brad Jones Racing, Matt Stone Racing and the Blanchard Racing Team have all flagged interest in running parallel programs next year in Super2 as well as the Repco Supercars Championship.