MOTORSPORT: Mercedes out of V8 Supercars

Mercedes-Benz is out of V8 Supercar racing – not that it was ever really in it as a manufacturer.

Wealthy Sydney-based team owner Betty Klimenko has confirmed that, after three years of fielding Mercedes-Benz E 63s in the V8 Supercar Championship, her Erebus Motorsport team is switching to Holden Commodore VFs this year.

Mercedes-Benz Australia never supported Klimenko’s E 63s, while she spent tens of millions of dollars with the German parent company’s performance offshoot AMG and its sedan racing business HWA developing them – although that association had scaled back over the past 18 months.

Erebus will continue fielding Mercs in GT Racing, with a pair of AMG SMSs in the Bathurst 12-Hour now only four weeks away.

Its new V8 Supercars will come from Walkinshaw Racing/Holden Racing Team and will be driven by David Reynolds – third in last year’s championship in a Ford Falcon FG-X – and newcomer Aaren Russell, who has replaced Ash Walsh at Erebus.

Holden now will have 14 Commodores in the championship, with six Fords, four Nissan Altimas and two Volvo S60s making up the 26-car field this season.

“Holden has proved its competitiveness in the sport again and again,” Klimenko said.

“Erebus has experienced success, but with the switch to Holden, combined with our experienced team personnel in Barry Ryan and Campbell Little, and David Reynolds behind the wheel, we have every chance to win more often.”

Erebus is consolidating its V8 Supercar and GT race teams in Melbourne, closing the Gold Coast workshop that housed the E 63s – at least one of which is believed to be destined for the V8 development series.

After taking over former Ford team Stone Brothers Racing at the end of 2012, Erebus won two V8 Supercar races with the E 63s – one in 2014 with Lee Holdsworth driving, the other last season with Will Davison.

Davison and Erebus severed a four-year contract at its halfway point and that driver – a Bathurst 1000 winner with Garth Tander in an HRT Commodore in 2009, when he also finished runner-up in the championship – has switched to Tekno Autosports in place of Shane Van Gisbergen, who has joined Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Reynolds said he didn’t know of Klimenko’s switch of brands when he signed on but said he was looking forward to getting back into a Commodore, having started his V8 Supercar career in a Walkinshaw Racing Holden – and having a strong relationship with the manufacturer.

“I made my V8 Supercars debut in a Commodore, but since I last raced a Holden the series moved into the ‘Car of the Future’ era,” Reynolds said.

“Since then the VF Commodore has proven to be the car of choice and I see the change to Holden as a positive for Erebus Motorsport.”