MOTORSPORT: Challenges aplenty for Supercars

Australia’s premier motorsport category rumbles into life for its 2017 season today in the Adelaide parklands with more questions and imponderables off-track than on.

In terms of the racing, the challenges are quite clear cut. Triple Eight Race Engineering is the dominant force and we are all waiting impatiently for a challenger to emerge to take on champion Shane van Gisbergen, his six-time title-holder teammate Jamie Whincup and their factory Holden Commodore VFs.

That challenge is most likely to come from Scott McLaughlin in the DJR Team Penske Ford Falcon FG X. The US-owned team has the money in the bank and the talent behind the wheel and in pitlane to go head-to-head with T8.

It’s mainly a question of whether it can all be gelled together into a package that is slick and consistent enough to rise to the occasion.

The rivalry between the two squads has lifted to a new intensity with the signing of Ludo Lacroix to be DJRTP’s competition director and McLaughlin’s race engineer.

But the Falcon has proved a difficult beast to tune with a fundamental front-to-rear imbalance that played a key role in Mark Winterbottom mounting such a disappointing championship defence in 2016. Lacroix has his work cut out for him.

Beyond those two teams the rest of the field will be the supporting cast, popping up for their moments in the spotlight but unlikely to shine consistently. That will especially be the case early in the season as everyone figures out the new construction Dunlop tyres.

Craig Lowndes and Will Davison should be race winners in their T8 Commodores. Prodrive, with Chaz Mostert the star here along with Winterbottom, is the best of the rest, while Brad Jones Racing, with South Australian talents Tim Slade and new signing Nick Percat, looks promising.

Nissan’s Simona de Silvestro will be a talking point as the first woman to race full-time in the championship since the 1970s. The Swiss is a good driver, but foreign rookies don’t usually shine in their first year here.

Then there’s the Walkinshaw Racing, which is now a privateer operation but retains the services of superstar James Courtney. His former teammate Garth Tander is now at Garry Rogers Motorsport, this team reverting to Holdens after three years racing factory-backed Volvos.

The departure of the S60s means we are down to three brands racing in the championship, comprising 16 Commodore VFs, six Ford Falcon FG Xs and four Nissan Altimas.

So we have one brand dominant with a car that is due to be pensioned off at the end of 2017, the Ford isn’t being built any more and the Nissan is into its fifth year as a road and race vehicle.

This highlights a real issue for this championship – where are the next lot of new cars coming from?

OK, we know about the NG Commodore, but we are still living in hope that Penske will be able to get approval to race the Mustang from an as-yet recalcitrant Ford. Nissan is in for this year and 2018, but then?

There is chat about Kia and Alfa Romeo coming in, but nothing definitive yet.

The issue boils down to this: the Supercars championship fundamentally exists as a unique technical set of regulations because we had a domestic automotive industry that built unique cars.

Now that fundamental building block is gone is there any reason to try and sustain a bespoke and expensive motor racing category based in one country with a limited population and a sporting sponsorship pool that is in demand across a variety of professional codes?

To his credit category CEO James Warburton has spoken for 12 months about the need to decide on the next generation of regulations and get them into the public arena quickly, so all the stakeholders know the direction into the 2020s.

As this issue emerges so the sale of the category continues to be the subject of regular coverage in the business pages of the Australian Financial Review and The Australian. Clearly current owner Archer Capital and Warburton want the world to know it’s time to move Supercars on to a new home.

There have been plenty of potential buyer names thrown up, but overall they seem to fall into two categories; television networks and sports management companies. The appeal for the former seems obvious: why pay for the rights for something you could own outright? For the latter? Well, it’s making money isn’t it?

So plenty to play out on and off-track.
Virgin Australia Supercars Championship 2017: What’s new, what's changed

Drivers:
>> Scott McLaughlin from Garry Rogers Motorsport to DJR Team Penske
>> Scott Pye from DJR Team Penske to Walkinshaw Racing
>> Garth Tander from Holden Racing Team/Walkinshaw Racing (now Mobil 1 HSV Racing) to GRM
>> Jason Bright from Bard Jones Racing to Prodrive Racing Australia
>> Nick Percat from Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport to BJR
>> Dale Wood from Nissan Motorsport to Erebus V8
>> Simona de Silvestro from Formula E to Nissan Motorsport
>> Alex Rullo from Dunlop development series (now Super2) to LDM
>> Taz Douglas joins LDM for Clipsal, but may only be a one-off

Gone:
>> Chris Pither – Super Black Racing joins Erebus as endurance co-driver
>> Alex Heimgartner – LDM to Carrera Cup
>> Shae Davies – Erebus back to Super2

Teams:
>> Walkinshaw Racing loses factory Holden backing and gives up ‘Holden Racing Team’ title to Red Bull Racing
>> Volvo succeeds in bid to end involvement in Supercars, forcing GRM to build and race Holden Commodores from 2017
>> Super Black Racing closed
>> Ludo Lacroix leaves post as tech boss at Triple Eight Race Engineering (Red Bull/Team Vortex) to become competition director and race engineer for McLaughlin at arch-rival DJR Team Penske
>> Highly rated Adam de Borre returns to Prodrive from DJR Team Penske to engineer Chaz Mostert
>> Veteran Campbell Little joins Bathurst winners Tekno to engineer Will Davison

Tech:
>> This season introduces the new Gen2 rules which allows body shapes other than four doors and engines other than V8s. No-one has made the change as yet, but the new-generation Commodore with a V6 twin turbo engine will be on the grid next year.

Calendar:
>> Season-ending Sydney 500 replaced by Newcastle 500

Formats:
>> Clipsal 500 reverts to its original and more popular 2 x 25km format.
>> Phillip Island event will consist of two 250km races.
>> Pukekohe (NZ) will replace four 100km races with 2 x 200km races.

Rules:
>> The controversial redress procedure that caused havoc at Bathurst has been clarified for 2017, with voluntary redress when an incident is limited to two drivers still allowed. Taking this action may mean the offending party isn’t further penalised.
>> Drivers are required to have a Superlicence to race in Supercars from 2017. That has already cost one driver, Matt Chahda, a drive.
>> Wildcard entry to specific rounds is now allowed.

What to watch out for this weekend:
>> The Clipsal 500 comprises the first and second races of the 2017 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. It includes practice on Friday, qualifying, a top 10 shootout and one 250km race on Saturday and qualifying, a top 10 shootout and a 250km race on Sunday.
>> This format is a change from the last three years when two 125km races have been conducted on Saturday. The Saturday shootout is also new.
>> All qualifying and racing will be conducted on the new-construction Dunlop soft tyre, placing lap records under immediate threat.
>> The minimum fuel drop is 140 litres, so cars will need to stop at least twice to make it home.
>> The clockwise 3.22km Adelaide parklands street circuit has a top speed of 251km/h. Average speed is 146km/h. With mainly right-hand corners the circuit works left-side tyres harder, but this is generally regarded as low-wear surface.
>> Kerbs and concrete walls mean damage to dampers, rims and panels is an ever-present risk. The fiercesome turn eight is legendary for regularly scrapping cars.
>> Scott McLaughlin owns the qualifying lap record at 1m 19.9677sec in the now-departed Volvo S60. Jamie Whincup owns the race lap record at 1m 21.0507sec.
>> Whincup has more pole positions than any other driver at this venue with seven. He also has the most wins with 10.
>> Alex Rullo becomes the youngest ever Supercars driver this season. The West Aussie student is just 16 and debuts at the Clipsal for Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport.
>> Ford star Chaz Mostert will make his 50th championship round start. Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport makes its 100th round start. GRM’s James Moffat makes race start number 200.
>> Holden is dominant at the Clipsal 500, winning every race at the venue since the New Generation (Car of the Future) technical regulations were introduced in 2013.
>> HSV’s James Courtney has an impressive recent record at Clipsal, winning at least one race each of the last three years. In 2016 he defeated Whincup in an epic second Saturday race, flipping the result from the opening outing. On Sunday local Nick Percat scored the first ever win for LDM in a storm-hit 250km outing.
>> Fox Sports, Channels 10 and ONE will show the action live.