2022 Supercars Championship
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The 2022 Supercars Championship (known for commercial reasons as the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship) is a planned motor racing series for Supercars. It is due to be the twenty-fourth running of the Supercars Championship and the twenty-sixth series in which Supercars have contested the Australian Touring Car Championship, the premier title in Australian motorsport.

The 2022 season is expected to see the introduction of Gen3, a revision to the sport's technical regulations. These regulations were designed to cut costs for competitors by introducing more standardised components to the cars and redesigning the chassis to favour coupé body shapes. The field will expand from 24 to 25 cars.

Teams and drivers

The following teams and drivers are under contract to compete in the 2022 championship. Unless confirmed otherwise, car numbers are presumed to carry over from 2021.

Season entries
Manufacturer	Model	Team	No.	Driver	Rounds		Co-driver	Rounds
Ford	Mustang GT[a]	Blanchard Racing Team	3	Tim Slade[1]
		Grove Racing	TBA	TBA
			26	David Reynolds[2]
		Tickford Racing	TBA	Thomas Randle[3]
		Dick Johnson Racing	TBA	Anton de Pasquale[4]
			TBA	Will Davison[4]
General Motors	Holden Commodore ZB[b] Chevrolet Camaro ZL1[c]	Brad Jones Racing	8	Andre Heimgartner[5]			Dale Wood[6]
		Erebus Motorsport[7]	9	Will Brown[8]
			99	Brodie Kostecki[8]
		Team 18[9]	18	Mark Winterbottom[10]			Michael Caruso[11]
			20	Scott Pye[12]
		Walkinshaw Andretti United	25	Chaz Mostert[13]
		Triple Eight Race Engineering	88	Broc Feeney[14]
			97	Shane van Gisbergen[15]
	Holden Commodore ZB[d] TBA[e]	Team Sydney	19	Fabian Coulthard[1]
			22	Garry Jacobson[16]
TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	Nick Percat[17]

Team changes

The field will expand from 24 to 25 cars after Supercars management sold a dormant Racing Entitlement Contract (REC) to Tickford Racing.^[18]

The Grove Group will take full ownership of Kelly Grove Racing, re-naming the team to Grove Racing.^[19]

Driver changes

Seven-time drivers' champion Jamie Whincup will retire from full-time competition at the end of the 2021 championship. He will replace Roland Dane as team principal and managing director of Triple Eight Race Engineering.^[15] Broc Feeney will graduate from the Super2 series to takeover Whincup's seat.^[14]

Thomas Randle will compete in the series full time with Tickford Racing, having raced as a wildcard for the team in 2019 and 2021.^[3]

Nick Percat left Brad Jones Racing and was replaced by Andre Heimgartner, who left Grove Racing.^[20][17][5]

List of planned races

The following venues are under contract to host a round of the 2022 championship:

Event	Circuit	Location	Ref.
Auckland	Pukekohe Park Raceway	Pukekohe, Auckland Region
Darwin Triple Crown	Hidden Valley Raceway	Darwin, Northern Territory	[21]
Gold Coast 600	Surfers Paradise Street Circuit	Surfers Paradise, Queensland	[22]
Newcastle 500	Newcastle Street Circuit	Newcastle, New South Wales	[23]
Sandown	Sandown Raceway	Springvale, Victoria	[24]
Sydney SuperNight	Sydney Motorsport Park	Eastern Creek, New South Wales	[25]
Tasmania	Symmons Plains Raceway	Launceston, Tasmania	[26]
Townsville	Reid Park Street Circuit	Townsville, Queensland	[22]

Calendar changes

The Newcastle 500 will return after a two-year absence. The round will replace the Mount Panorama 500 as the season opener.^[23]

Rule changes

Gen3

Gen3 is expected to make its debut, replacing the Car of the Future regulations that débuted in 2013, with regulations designed to lower costs of a standard Supercar.^[27]

The regulations are expected to introduce more controlled components into the cars to address the rising costs of maintaining a car. The pedal kit, brake kit and wheels will become control components, with tenders needing the rims to be 'finger friendly' for pit crew during a pit stop. The roll cage will be lowered by 100mm to be suited to coupes, after the controversy surrounding the Ford Mustang GT, which required the roof to be stretched beyond the dimensions of its road-going counterpart to fit. Supercars are planning to manufacturer the roll cage in kit form for teams that do not have the budget to build one themselves.^{[28][29][30][31]}

The engines on Gen3 are expected to be overhauled, with pushrod engines expected to be replaced with fuel-injected, DOHC V8 engines. This is intended to modernise the engine and significantly reduce costs of building and maintaining them.^[32]

Aerodynamic downforce will be cut by 67% to encourage closer racing and easier overtaking after complaints from drivers about dirty air and aerowash from current Gen2 cars.^[33]

Triple Eight Race Engineering will oversee the development of the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 as a replacement for the Holden ZB Commodore. The Camaro ZL1 was chosen after parent company General Motors decided to discontinue the Holden brand and shut down production of the Commodore.^[34] Dick Johnson Racing will re-homologate the Ford Mustang to comply with the new regulations.^[35] They have planned to replace the existing V8 engine that was carried over from the Ford Falcon FG X with a Ford Coyote V8 engine.^[36]

Originally it was planned that the Gen3 cars would debut at the beginning of the season. The new cars are now planned to debut mid-season in August.^[37]

Notes

References