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With the 2022 season having ended it's time to start the thread for a new season and new era of Supercars with the introduction of the new Gen 3 Camaro and Mustang cars. Other notable changes include veterans Lee Holdsworth and Chris Pither leaving and rookies Cameron Hill and Matt Payne coming in, longtime GM team Walkinshaw Andretti United switching to Mustangs, Newcastle returning to the schedule for the first time since 2019 and both Pukehohe and Winton leaving the schedule.

Schedule:
1 Newcastle 500 New South Wales Newcastle Street Circuit Newcastle, New South Wales 10–12 March
2 Melbourne 400 Victoria (Australia) Albert Park Circuit Albert Park, Victoria 30 March–2 April
3 Perth SuperSprint Western Australia Wanneroo Raceway Neerabup, Western Australia 28–30 April
4 Tasmania SuperSprint Tasmania Symmons Plains Raceway Launceston, Tasmania 19–21 May
5 Darwin Triple Crown Northern Territory Hidden Valley Raceway Darwin, Northern Territory 16–18 June
6 Townsville 500 Queensland Reid Park Street Circuit Townsville, Queensland 7–9 July
7 Sydney SuperNight New South Wales Sydney Motorsport Park Eastern Creek, New South Wales 28–30 July
8 The Bend SuperSprint South Australia The Bend Motorsport Park Tailem Bend, South Australia 18–20 August
9 Sandown 500 Victoria (Australia) Sandown Raceway Springvale, Victoria 15–17 September
10 Bathurst 1000 New South Wales Mount Panorama Circuit Bathurst, New South Wales 5–8 October
11 Gold Coast 500 Queensland Surfers Paradise Street Circuit Surfers Paradise, Queensland 27–29 October
12 Adelaide 500 South Australia Adelaide Street Circuit Adelaide, South Australia 23–26 November

A bit of a bombshell was dropped today with last year's Bathurst winner Garth Tander announcing that he's leaving Triple 8 to co-drive for the Groves, presumably with David Reynolds. It's another sign that they're trying to become one of the main teams as they previously poached a couple of T888's engineers for the 2022 season.

Bit of an odd move, it's like leaving Red Bull to drive for McLaren

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"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

Bit of a juicy off-season rumour floating around today. It seems that Jake Kostecki was in an altercation with Scott Pye at the championship Gala awards and Tickford is now going to drop him, most likely for Declan Fraser who won Super2 for Triple 8 last year.

https://www.v8sleuth.com.au/tickford-tipped-to-make-shock-driver-change/

This has been confirmed today (though they've yet to officially announce Fraser)

So Richie Stanaway confirmed as SVG's co-driver for the enduros, this is exactly the sorta thing he needed for his career

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"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

Would have love to see Richie get a full time seat though. Shame T8 can't/won't enter a third car as I think he'd do better than Feeney.

[insert hours of bitching about the REC / charter / franchise system limiting car count to stupid low levels here]

The Triple Eight Supercheap wildcard car will be back this year, this time with Zane Goddard driving alongside Lowndes. They might do Sandown as well as Bathurst and possibly some sprint rounds too.

https://www.speedcafe.com/2023/01/25/goddard-joins-triple-eight-supercheap-auto-wildcard-programme/

https://www.speedcafe.com/2023/01/27/triple-8-and-djr-to-miss-gen3-supercars-shakedown-test/

The first major test of the year was supposed to be happening on Monday for the two homologation teams (T888 and DJR) but it's been postponed as neither of their cars are ready yet after parts supply issues. It's looking like most (if not all) the teams are not going to have much time to get their cars ready for Newcastle once they've finished building them.

Don't forget they had an extra year to organise all this. They can't really blame COVID either.

First Gen-3 livery has been revealed. Finally a Mustang that looks like a Mustang.

at first i thought it was a gen 1 gt3 car, but the more i look at it the more i like it.

wonder how the rest of the grid will look like.

Grove Racing:

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DJR:



And the Triple 8 Camaro SVG took for a few demo laps during the Bathurst 12h (likely not the final paint scheme):

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The Erebus livery is out. Can't go wrong with a red on black Coke livery.

The cars have made the liveries look so much better, here's hoping the race is good

Triple 8 test livery continues the RB tradition of teasing tast paint preseason before turning up in the same old suit for the first race.


https://www.speedcafe.com/2023/02/09/ph ... y/?image=1

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Now that I've noticed that flat area in the center of the roof, I can't unsee it.

one of the things mirrored from the production model

Nice to see a departure from the predominantly white livery:

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