The change to the latest generation of cars to compete in the Repco Supercars Championship is one of the biggest technical shifts in a long time.
In fact, you need to wind the clock back to 1993 to see a bigger shift in the regulations that teams contesting the Australian Touring Car Championship/Supercars have ever had to deal with.
The mid-80s and early 90s were the domain of international Group A regulations. Whistling Ford Sierras, world-crushing Nissan GT-Rs and blistering BMWs were the norm, plus a handful of Commodores that represented Australia in a largely global field of race cars.
By 1992, the desire for turbos had blown out and the thirst for an all-Australian approach had renewed.
After lacklustre grid sizes and waning public interest, consultation between CAMS (now Motorsport Australia), broadcaster Channel 7 and leading manufacturers General Motors Holden and Ford saw a new set of regulations born that would bring back locally-produced V8-powered touring cars to Aussie race tracks.
At the time, there were sceptics that these new cars were ‘bringing back dinosaurs’. But like the popularity of any of the Jurassic Park movies, the V8s were a big hit at the box office.So popular, in fact, that the cars that debuted in the opening round of the 1993 ATCC at Amaroo Park largely remained similar for the next 20 years … until Gen3.The new breed of V8s made their debut at the 1992 Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000s, with just three teams (Holden Racing Team, Peter Brock’s Advantage Racing and Glenn Seton Racing) fielding cars for the 1000.
An increased grid of six cars made a start in the non-championship round at Eastern Creek for the Triple Challenge, with a further five were added to that for the opening round of the 1993 Shell ATCC at Amaroo.And it was a spectacular start. Departing body panels and cars kicking up dust were hallmarks of the new 5.0-litre V8 touring car racing.
The Holden Racing Team’s Tomas Mezera qualified on pole and won the old Peter Jackson Dash, before Dick Johnson took his Shell Falcon to victory in the first race, and his team-mate John Bowe claiming Race 2. ‘JB’ would leave the event as the round winner and title leader, but their Ford counterparts Glenn Seton would ultimately go on to win the title.
It was a brave new world. A uniquely Australian set of regulations that catapulted the popularity of the sport back to similar heights of the 1970s.
Fast forward 30 years and the new breed of Supercars is renewing interest in the sport that kicks off at Newcastle for the opening round of the Repco Supercars Championship on March 10-12.