MOTORSPORT: New look V8 series to hit the track

Australia has a new national V8 racing series.

Thanks to a tug-of-love over Trans Am racing in Australia, a new six-round national championship for the V8-powered American racecars has been created.

The National Trans Am Series will open at the Adelaide 500 and continue through to the Bathurst International meeting in November.

It will mean a two-tier Trans Am landscape for 2020 as the Australian Racing Group (ARG) activates its new National Trans Am Series and the TA2 Muscle Car Series continues under the leadership of category pioneer, Peter Robinson.

The plan for the full-scale professional Trans Am series has been brought forward a year by ARG, which holds the Trans Am category management rights from Motorsport Australia as well as the local commercial, promotional and marketing rights for Trans Am under a deal with the Trans Am Race Company in the USA.

ARG had originally planned a joint program with Robinson this year but, after disagreements on several fronts, the two parties have parted.

“The only disruption for us is that we’ve now had to bring forward a plan for a separate calendar. 2020 was going to be a hybrid year with some of his events and some of our,” ARG director, Matt Braid, told carsales.

“So our plans have changed only in the sense that we’ve brought things forward by a year. All we want to do is provide a high-profile national platform for TA2 competitors. We like the series, we like the cars and the category.”

The Trans Am racers feature a common rear-drive bespoke chassis and are powered by NASCAR-style V8 engines. Mustang, Camaro and Dodge Challenger body styles are used in the US-founded series.

Braid says ARG has received two dozen expressions of interest for the National Trans Am Series opener at the Adelaide 500 meeting and is confident of strong fields for the events that follow, at Sydney Motor Sport Park, Winton, Tailem Bend, Phillip Island and Bathurst.

“There are already close to 40 eligible cars in the country. It’s our goal to give the Mustang, Camaro and Challenger V8 racers the national footprint they deserve,” Braid stated.

“We want to be very competitor focussed, and we want to have an open invitation to race at our events. We’re working with the competitor group now to allay their concerns to allow them to race with us, or Peter, or both.”

The Trans Am deal is part of an aggressive plan by ARG for 2020 that centres on the TCR Australia Series and includes S5000 single-seaters and the Touring Car Masters championship.

“Trans Am cars are some of the most exciting racecars that are currently in Australia. They look and sound spectacular, create great racing and they are built with cost in mind,” says Braid.

“Grid sizes will be capped to 32 cars. We firmly believe that a national-level series will be a great step forward for Trans Am competitors,” Braid stated.