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Why is Shane van Gisbergen so good at road courses? Learn about his prior motorsport of choice – the Supercars Championship.
Aussie Motorsports Shakes Up NASCAR
Back in 2023, NASCAR introduced the Chicago Street Course, a street circuit that took place in the heart of Chicago, Illinois. This new addition to the schedule presented an interesting challenge for drivers who are used to speeding around high-banked ovals for 90% of their season. This also posed and interesting opportunity to bring in some experienced drivers from outside of the American motorsport.
Trackhouse Racing did just that for the Chicago event by signing on Shane van Gisbergen to drive their number 91 chevy. Van Gisbergen was chosen for the event thanks to his successful background in GT Racing and multiple Supercars Championships. NASCAR fans likely hadn’t heard of the Australian Supercars Championships before, but they sure got a taste of what that motorsport is about when SVG capably beat their favorite drivers.
The Supercars Championship is essentially Australia’s version of NASCAR with similarly built V8 race cars. Their events take place all around Australian with occasional events over on the small islands of New Zealand, but their seasons are drastically different in comparison to what we experience over in America. While NASCAR is predominantly oval tracks with the occasional road courses, the Supercars Championship is entirely composed of winding road circuits and street courses with ovals being exceedingly rare.
It’s a different motorsport than what NASCAR fans are used to, but it holds a lot in common at the same time. We’re giving a quick rundown of this Aussie motorsport’s history and what the Repco Supercars Championship is like today.
The Australian Touring Car Championship
The Supercars Championship has gone by many names throughout its over 60-year history, but it was first known as the Australian Touring Car Championship. The championship’s first race took place on February 1st, 1960, and looked a lot like the early days of stock car racing here in America – just with Australian market cars. The early events were made up of Jaguars, Austins, and a significant portion of Holden models, which was Australia’s own auto manufacturer.
Later years saw Holdens joined by the likes of American models like the Ford Mustangs and Chevrolet Camaros. The ‘60s of the Australian Touring Car Championship were also dominated by the likes of the Mini Cooper and Porsche 911. Seeing the compact British cars and German sports cars competing against powerful Fords, Chevys, and Holdens was truly an odd sight, but it made for interesting racing. While the muscle cars took the straights with ease, the Coopers and Porsches could keep their composure around the winding turns of the tracks.
The 1960s is also when this Australian motorsport also found its staple event. Like we have the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 here in the States, Australians have the Bathurst 1000. The first race around Bathurst took place in 1963 and was just 500 kilometers long before it was expanded to 1000 km ten years later. It’s become the largest racing event in Australia and is commonly referred to as “The Great Race” by fans.
Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s the Australian Touring Car Championship would adopt Group C then Group B regulations from the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) before utilizing the international Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) Group A regulations. In 1993, the motorsport chose the CAMS Group 3A rules that would later lead to the V8 Supercar category. These new rules led to models like the Holden Commodore being predominantly chosen as replacements. These models carried 5.0L V8 engines under their hoods and were given aero packages featuring rear wings.
Eventually the focus on these V8 racecars would lead to a new branding for the series to be known as V8 Supercars in the late ‘90s. 1999 also introduced controlled tires to further limit any advantage between cars, similar to how NASCAR only allows teams to run the same Goodyear produced tires. V8 Supercars added regulations known as Project Blueprint in 2003 that led to more standardized components under the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore skinned stock cars. This again related to NASCAR and their use of standardized stock car bodies and components with manufacturer shells over top.
Entering the 2010s, more manufacturers joined the ranks of Ford and Holden in the V8 Supercars Championship. Nissan, Mercedes-AMG, and even Volvo had some form of racer take a chance in this race series. Another rebrand occurs in 2017 to the Supercars Championship along with undated Gen 2 Supercar rules that open up options for engines and body shapes.
Going into the 2020s, the manufacturer landscape shifted back to just Ford and Holden making up the Supercars Championship field. That is until General Motors announced that the Holden brand was to be retired in 2021. The Commodore raced the 2022 season before having their place in the Supercars Championship filled by Chevrolet creating a field of stock cars featuring manufacturers reminiscent of NASCAR.
Today’s Repco Supercars Championship
2023 introduced the Gen3 Supercar regulations to the Repco Supercars Championship. These new car regulations aimed to achieve some of the same items that NASCAR’s Next Gen car looked to help with – more competitive racing and reducing team costs. Where the Supercars Championship differs is that their race cars relate more to model’s on-road counterparts more so than NASCAR stock cars do. The biggest differences that these cars hold over NASCAR stock cars are their large rear wing, functional lighting, working doors, and a windshield wiper. Ford introduced a Gen3 Supercar design based off their seventh generation Mustang GT while Chevrolet’s car is based on the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1-1LE.
While Shane van Gisbergen picked up a full-time seat in NASCAR, he still traveled back down under to compete in the Repco Supercars Championship. The 2023 season saw the three-time Drivers’ Champion win his third Bathurst 1000 but ultimately finishing second overall behind Brodie Kosteki. Kosteki not only won his first Drivers’ Championship but helped get his team, Erebus Motorsport, their first Teams’ Championship.
The 2024 Repco Supercars Championship season just wrapped up earlier this November. Will Brown won his first Drivers’ Championship behind the wheel of the Red Bull Ampol Racing Ford Mustang with his teammate Broc Feeney just behind him in points. With those two Mustangs at the top of the board, the Red Bull Ampol Racing/Triple Eight Race Engineering team easily secured their record-breaking twelfth Teams’ Championship.
It’s shaping up to be an interesting season for 2025, but we’re more excited for 2026. Toyota is rumored to be bringing an entrant to the series after leaving the series over 20 years ago. While the production Supercar from Toyota hasn’t made it past renderings and clay models yet, we know that they plan to base it off the GR Supra. Not only that, but their plans include swapping out that BMW sourced inline six for a V8 straight out of the Lexus LC500.
If you’re a fan of NASCAR’s road courses and willing to expand your motorsports horizons, this may be the opportunity for you. The Supercars Championship is a great racing experience with plenty of on-track action. Catch the upcoming Supercar season starting in February by watching it on the SuperView live streaming service, updated through the RaceHQ app, or catch highlights on socials.
