Virgin Australia Supercars Championship 2020

Soldato
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Commonly referred to as the 'Supercars Championship' or 'V8 Supercars' this thrilling series runs from February to December throughout Australia with a trip to New Zealand for some light international flavour.

The 2020 championship will see the series revert to having only two manufacturers, Ford and Holden, for the first time since 2012 as Nissan will no longer be represented on the grid. This will be the Holden Commodore's final season :(

Scott McLaughlin will enter the series as the defending drivers' champion.[2] DJR Team Penske will enter the season as the reigning teams' champions. Ford will enter the season as reigning manufacturers' champion.

The cars are front engine, rear wheel drive with an output of 620-650bhp currently using a 5.0 litre V8 although new regulations have also opened up the engine options although no teams have committed to this yet.

Calendar

Round Event Circuit Location Dates
1
Adelaide 500 Adelaide Street Circuit Adelaide, South Australia 22–23 February
2 Melbourne 400 Albert Park Circuit Melbourne, Victoria 13–15 March
3 Tasmania Super400 Symmons Plains Raceway Launceston, Tasmania 4–5 April
4 Auckland Super400 Hampton Downs Motorsport Park North Waikato, New Zealand 25–26 April
5 Perth SuperNight Wanneroo Raceway Neerabup, Western Australia 16–17 May
6 Winton Super400 Winton Motor Raceway Benalla, Victoria 6–7 June
7 Townsville 400 Townsville Street Circuit Townsville, Queensland 27–28 June
8 Darwin Triple Crown Hidden Valley Raceway Darwin, Northern Territory 18–19 July
9 Sydney SuperNight Sydney Motorsport Park Eastern Creek, New South Wales 29–30 August
10 The Bend 500 The Bend Motorsport Park Tailem Bend, South Australia 20 September
11 Bathurst 1000 Mount Panorama Circuit Bathurst, New South Wales 11 October
12 Gold Coast 600 Surfers Paradise Street Circuit Surfers Paradise, Queensland 31 October–1 November
13 Sandown Super400 Sandown Raceway Springvale, Victoria 21–22 November
14 Newcastle 500 Newcastle Street Circuit Newcastle, New South Wales 5–6 December

Team changes

Tekno Autosports will relocate to Western Sydney and expand to a two-car operation under the Team Sydney brand. A second Racing Entitlement Contract (REC) was acquired from Supercars management. It will enter two Triple Eight-built Holden ZB Commodores.

Brad Jones Racing will expand to a three-car team, after acquiring an REC that was formerly owned by Britek Motorsport and had been leased to Matt Stone Racing. Brad Jones Racing will continue to operate a fourth car on behalf of Tim Blanchard Racing.

Kelly Racing will scale down from a four-car team to a two-car team and race with the Ford Mustang GT. Two of the team's RECs were purchased by Charlie Schwerkolt Racing and Matt Stone Racing, with both to expand to two car entries. Matt Stone Racing acquired a second REC from Garry Rogers Motorsport to replace the one it had been leasing from Britek Motorsport. Rogers elected to withdraw from the championship, citing escalating costs of competing and a model that required them to purchase parts rather than develop them as the reasons for his decision to withdraw.

Driver changes

Walkinshaw Andretti United will field a completely new line-up in 2020 after James Courtney and Scott Pye left the team. Courtney will move to the Team Sydney, with his seat at Walkinshaw Andretti United filled by Chaz Mostert. Jack Le Brocq left Tekno Autosports and joined Tickford Racing, where he replaced Mostert. Scott Pye joined Charlie Schwerkolt Racing and Walkinshaw Andretti United named reigning Super2 champion Bryce Fullwood as Pye's replacement. Chris Pither returned to the championship on a full-time basis, racing with Team Sydney. Pither last competed full-time in 2016.

Zane Goddard and Jake Kostecki will graduate from the Super2 Series and make their championship débuts driving for Matt Stone Racing. Goddard and Kostecki will share a car as part of the new SuperLite program, allowing both drivers to compete in five rounds of the series each before teaming up for the Enduro Cup.

Todd Hazelwood left Matt Stone Racing to join Brad Jones Racing. He will replace Tim Slade who will join DJR Team Penske as a co-driver. Jack Smith will make his full time début in the championship with the team. Smith had previously competed for Brad Jones Racing in the Super2 Series and at selected Supercars rounds as a wildcard in 2019.

Richie Stanaway and James Golding left Garry Rogers Motorsport after the team's decision to withdraw from the championship. Stanaway retired from motorsport, while Golding joined Charlie Schwerkolt Racing for the endurance races.

Simona de Silvestro and Garry Jacobson left Kelly Racing as the team's decision to scale down to two cars left both drivers without a seat. De Silvestro returned to the Formula E championship as a test driver for Porsche, while Jacobson joined Matt Stone Racing.

How to watch:

Internationally the series can be live streamed and races played on demand via Supercars Superview which goes for a fairly reasonable $60 AUD for the season.

I think you can also get it on MotorTrend On Demand.

Teams and Drivers

#2 Mobil 1 Middy’s Racing - Bryce Fullwood

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#3 Team CoolDrive - Macauley Jones

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#4 SCT Logistics - Jack Smith

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#5 Truck Assist Racing - Lee Holdsworth


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#6 Monster Energy Racing - Cameron Waters

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#7 NED Racing - Andre Heimgartner

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#8 Brad Jones Racing - Nick Percat

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#9 Penrite Racing - David Reynolds

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#12 Shell V-Power Racing - Fabian Coulthard

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#14 Plus Fitness Racing - Todd Hazelwood


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#15 Castrol Racing - Rick Kelly

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#17 Shell V-Power Racing - Scott McLaughlin

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#18 IRWIN Racing - Mark Winterbottom

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#19 Team Sydney - James Courtney

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#20 DEWALT Racing - Scott Pye

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#22 Team Sydney - Chris Pither

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#23 Milwaukee Racing - Will Davison

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#25 Mobil 1 Appliances Online Racing - Chaz Mostert

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#34 UNIT Racing - Zane Goddard/Jake Kostecki

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#35 Yellow Cover Racing - Garry Jacobson

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#55 Supercheap Auto Racing - Jack Le Brocq

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#88 Red Bull Holden Racing Team - Jamie Whincup

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#97 Red Bull Holden Racing Team - Shane van Gisbergen

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#99 Penrite Racing - Anton De Pasquale

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Soldato
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Great start, loving the Kelly Mustang and the Team Sydney Coca Cola Liveries! As said in the other thread, can see this being a straight fight between SVG and McLaughlin. A shame that Sandown has been dropped from the Enduros and the loss of Philip Island. Gold Coast at night might make it slightly more interesting!
 
Soldato
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bah, I signed up for Superview and then realised that I can watch it all on Motor Trend. Wasted $40. Can’t see how to cancel and get a refund on it either. Oh well.
Looking forward to this one. Grid wasn’t what I was expecting. Hopefully Reynolds can have a good one :)
 
Soldato
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First race was fairly uneventful, sublime performance by Whincup, second race much more entertaining! Some big errors from the 2 big teams and SVG once again not being able to play the long game and putting his car out of the game trying to gain places!
 
Soldato
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Yeah I was looking forward to SVG fighting back to 2nd but his car didn’t want to do it. I think that was going to fail regardless of how he drove that last few laps.

shocking strategy errors from both top teams. Amateur hour.
 
Soldato
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Back to back to back to back.

Been some good racing and the format with 3 sprints and limited tyres has meant diverging strategy but penske shell v power team seem to have mastered it with mclaughlin just imperious and unbeatable this weekend. Onto my favourite circuit bar bathurst, townsville.
 
Soldato
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So apart from round 1 I've not actually watched any Supercars this year. Not because I don't absolutely love it but I'm struggling to support the concept of such dangerous events taking place during a global pandemic. I find it farcical that we can't just stop for a year and revisit things when the situation is better suited. Motorsport without crowds is oddly dull and with some of the marshalling issues at my local track it just seems unecessary to be racing right now.

That said it's also Bathurst this weekend which is always a bananas race. No championship on the line so it should be a great fight for the podium although I still have my reservations as above.

Anyone else watching?
 
Soldato
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I’ve been watching them. I probably prefer the races without crowds, it stops the director cutting away from races and showing crowds.

Bathurst should be a good one.

Apparently Penske are expected to pull out of Supercars, Scott is going to drive Indycar, and Ryan Story is going to run Supercars team with Dick Johnson with Depasquale and Davidson as their driver lineup.
 
Soldato
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Without Sport starting back up I think I would have gone absolutely insane! I'm glad Supercars has started again along with everything else and if it didn't we probably wouldn't have it again for a few years.

Qually was tight this morning and weather looks absolutley frightening for the weekend. Hope for a relatively clean race in what looks to be very wet conditions.
 
Soldato
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Good race all in all and svg thoroughly deserved the win with his performance in that short wet period. Few incidents as there has been most of the season, wonder how much of that is due to covid and drivers realising the pressure big accidents have on their teams for once.
 
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