MOTORSPORT: 2021 Supercars championship is go

The gaping hole at the top of Supercars is waiting to be filled as 24 top-flight touring car racers face an all-new challenge at Bathurst this weekend.

The Mt Panorama 500 is an all-new opener for Australia’s premier motorsport championship, taking the place of the rough-and-tumble traditional season start on the baking-hot streets of Adelaide.

With Scott McLaughlin now racing his dream in the USA, and preparing for his first season in IndyCar open-wheelers, the auditions are about to begin for his successor.

Shane van Gisbergen is the natural successor after battling door-to-door with Scotty Mac in recent Supercars season, but there are others with solid claims and the ability to defeat the understudy.

Will Davison will win races in McLaughlin’s Shell Mustang, so will Chaz Mostert at Walkinshaw Andretti United, while the next-level threats will include Scott Pye, Nick Percat and Andre Heimgartner.

But the big question is not about winning individual races, as many can – and will – do, but sustaining a full-season campaign.

That challenge begins at Bathurst with an entirely new challenge.

Instead of a 1000km, two-driver enduro at Mount Panorama in October, the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship opens with a pair of 250km contests that will provide a tough test for drivers, cars and crews in February.

There will be a minimum of two pitstops, with refueling and tyre changes, which means teams will have to make the right tactical choices. And Safety Car laps are almost a certainty at a track which has always punished the smallest errors.

Based on the results of Bathurst last year, van Gisbergen will be tough to toss. But Cam Waters – who paired with Will Davison for a memorable win in the Monster Energy Mustang – cannot be discounted.

“He is burning for it,” says Tickford team boss, Tim Edwards, of the motivation for his quietly spoken team leader.

So that’s two.

David Reynolds could spring a surprise if he can re-invent himself in a Penrite Mustang after a demoralising 2020 season that led to him breaking a 10-year deal with Erebus team owner Betty Klimenko.

And 2019 TCR Australia Series champion Will Brown was fast in pre-season testing in the Erebus Commodore.

But apart from The Giz and Waters, the other two most-likely season contenders are old and new – Jamie Whincup and Anton de Pasquale.

It’s de Pasquale, nicknamed Stan after working on his family’s Victorian cauliflower farm, who is the focus of most speculation.

After falling off the single-seater ladder to Formula 1 in Europe he is fully-focussed on becoming a Supercars champion.

“I’m feeling really good. I’m looking forward to it,” he told carsales.

“But there is no pressure attached to it. We have to deal with pressure. And I think pressure brings an opportunity.”

His opportunity is to mold McLaughlin’s winning team around him, without antagonising Davison, and taking the fight to the Red Bull Ampol Commodores in the final year before the Holden badge leaves Supercars for good before the arrival of the Chevrolet Camaro coupe.

And then there is Jamie Whincup, the seven-time champion who is having his last year in the main game of Supercars racing before turning to team management with The Bulls.

Whincup has reinvented and re-focussed himself many times, and is as pumped for the new season as a rookie.

“That’s what we’re here for,” he says.

Plenty of people have bet against Whincup in the past, and lost, and 2021 could easily see him retiring with another championship crown.

2021 Repco Supercars Championship driver line-up:

DICK JOHNSON RACING
Will Davison #17 Ford Mustang
Anton de Pasquale #100 Ford Mustang

RED BULL AMPOL RACING
Jamie Whincup #88 Holden Commodore
Shane van Gisbergen #97 Holden Commodore

TICKFORD RACING
Cam Waters #6 Ford Mustang
Jack Le Brocq #5 Ford Mustang
James Courtney #44 Ford Mustang

BLANCHARD RACING
Tim Slade #3 Ford Mustang

WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI UNITED
Chaz Mostert #25 Holden Commodore
Bryce Fullwood #2 Holden Commodore

EREBUS MOTORSPORT
Will Brown #9 Holden Commodore
Brodie Kostecki #99 Holden Commodore

KELLY GROVE RACING
David Reynolds #26 Ford Mustang
Andre Heimgartner #7 Ford Mustang

BRAD JONES RACING
Nick Percat #8 Holden Commodore
Todd Hazelwood #14 Holden Commodore
Macauley Jones #96 Holden Commodore
Jack Smith #4 Holden Commodore

TEAM 18
Mark Winterbottom #18 Holden Commodore
Scott Pye #20 Holden Commodore

MATT STONE RACING
Zane Goddard #35 Holden Commodore
Jake Kostecki #34 Holden Commodore

TEAM SYDNEY
Fabian Coulthard #19 Holden Commodore
Garry Jacobson #22 Holden Commodore