2021 Supercars Championship

The 2021 Supercars Championship (known for commercial reasons as the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship) is a planned motor racing series for Supercars. It is due to be the twenty-fifth running of the Supercars Championship and the twenty-fifth series in which Supercars have contested the Australian Touring Car Championship, the premier title in Australian motorsport. Repco will replace Virgin Australia as naming rights sponsor under a five-year partnership.

2021 Supercars Championship
Previous: 2020 Next: 2022
Support series:
Super2 Series
Dick Johnson Racing (pictured in 2019 as DJR Team Penske) will enter the series as the defending teams' champion

Dick Johnson Racing will enter the series as the defending teams' championship, Ford will enter the series as the defending manufacturers' championship.

Teams and drivers

The following teams and drivers are under contract to compete in the 2021 championship. Unless confirmed otherwise, car numbers and chassis types are presumed to carry over from 2020.

Championship entries Bathurst 1000 entries
Manufacturer Model Team No. Driver name Ref. Co-driver name Ref.
Ford Mustang GT Blanchard Racing Team 3 Tim Slade [1] Tim Blanchard [2]
Tickford Racing 5 Jack Le Brocq [3] Thomas Randle
James Moffat
TBA		 [4]
6 Cameron Waters [5]
44 James Courtney [6]
Kelly Grove Racing 7 Andre Heimgartner [7] TBA
26 David Reynolds [8] Luke Youlden [9]
Dick Johnson Racing 11[lower-alpha 1] Anton de Pasquale [10] Scott McLaughlin
TBA		 [11]
17 Will Davison [12]
Holden Commodore ZB Walkinshaw Andretti United 2 Bryce Fullwood [13] Warren Luff [14]
25 Chaz Mostert [15] Lee Holdsworth [16]
Brad Jones Racing 4 Jack Smith [17] TBA
8 Nick Percat [18] TBA
14 Todd Hazelwood [19] TBA
96 Macauley Jones [20] TBA
Erebus Motorsport 9 Will Brown [21] TBA
99 Brodie Kostecki [22] TBA
Team 18 18 Mark Winterbottom [23] Michael Caruso
James Golding		 [24]
20 Scott Pye [7]
Team Sydney 19 Fabian Coulthard [25] TBA
22 Garry Jacobson [26] TBA
Matt Stone Racing 34 Jake Kostecki [27] TBA
35 Zane Goddard [27] TBA
Triple Eight Race Engineering 88 Jamie Whincup [28] Craig Lowndes [29]
97 Shane van Gisbergen [30] Garth Tander [31]

Team changes

In February 2020, Holden's parent company General Motors announced it would retire the Holden name by the end of 2020.[32] The Commodore ZB will continue to be raced in 2021, albeit with no factory support.[33]

Team Penske sold its majority shareholding in DJR Team Penske at the end of 2020, reverting the team name to Dick Johnson Racing, which was last used in 2014.[34]

The Grove Group purchased a majority in Kelly Racing, to become Kelly Grove Racing.[35]

Blanchard Racing Team will cease to be a customer of Brad Jones Racing and take its Racing Entitlement Contract (REC) to become a standalone team with an ex-23Red Racing Ford Mustang. To allow it to continue fielding four cars, Brad Jones Racing purchased 23Red Racing's REC that was leased to Tickford Racing in 2020, which saw the latter downsize from four cars to three cars.[36][37]

Driver changes

Dick Johnson Racing will field an all new line-up for 2021. Scott McLaughlin will not defend his title, leaving the series to race in the IndyCar Series with Team Penske.[34] This is the first time the champion has not returned to defend his championship since Craig Lowndes did not defend his 1996 title. He will return to drive with the team as an endurance co-driver, subject to Australia relaxing its COVID-19 travel restrictions.[38] Fabian Coulthard moved to Team Sydney. Anton de Pasquale, who moved from Erebus Motorsport,[39] and Will Davison will drive for the team. For Davison, he will return to the team he last raced for full time from 2006 until 2008.[10]

Erebus Motorsport will also field an all new line-up. David Reynolds and Anton de Pasquale left the team, and were replaced by Super2 drivers Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki.[21][22] Reynolds returned to Kelly Grove Racing, having last raced for the team in 2011, to replace Rick Kelly, who retired from full-time racing at the end of 2020.[8][40]

With Tickford Racing scaling back to three cars, Lee Holdsworth departed the team and Jack Le Brocq moved to the number 5 car.[3] Holdsworth joined Walkinshaw Andretti United as an endurance co-driver with Chaz Mostert

Garry Jacobson left Matt Stone Racing to join Team Sydney. Zane Goddard and Jake Kostecki, who shared a car for the team in 2020, will both race for the team in all races.[41]

As a result of Team Sydney signing Fabian Coulthard and Garry Jacobson, Chris Pither and Alex Davison will not return as full-time drivers.

Calendar

The following venues are under contract to host a round of the 2021 championship:

Round Event Circuit Location Dates
1 Mount Panorama 500 Mount Panorama Circuit Bathurst, New South Wales 27–28 February
2 Sandown SuperSprint Sandown Raceway Springvale, Victoria 19–21 March
3 Tasmania SuperSprint Symmons Plains Raceway Launceston, Tasmania 10–11 April
4 The Bend SuperSprint The Bend Motorsport Park Tailem Bend. South Australia 8–9 May
5 Winton SuperSprint Winton Motor Raceway Benalla, Victoria 29–30 May
6 Darwin Triple Crown Hidden Valley Raceway Darwin, Northern Territory 19–20 June
7 Townsville 500 Reid Park Street Circuit Townsville, Queensland 10–11 July
8 Sydney SuperNight Sydney Motorsport Park Eastern Creek, New South Wales 21–22 August
9 Perth SuperNight Wanneroo Raceway Neerabup, Western Australia 11–12 September
10 Bathurst 1000 Mount Panorama Circuit Bathurst, New South Wales 10 October
11 Auckland SuperSprint TBA New Zealand 6–7 November
12 Gold Coast 500 Surfers Paradise Street Circuit Surfers Paradise, Queensland 4–5 December
Source:[42][43][44][45][46]

Calendar changes

The Adelaide 500 will not appear on the calendar for the first time since 1998, with the South Australian Tourism Commission withdrawing its financial support citing the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and dwindling attendances as key factors.[47]

Auckland, Gold Coast, Perth, Tasmania, Melbourne and Winton are due to return to the calendar after they were cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[48]

The season will commence with a sprint round at Mount Panorama after the Bathurst 12 Hour was cancelled due to the ongoing travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic.[49] While the season will end at the Gold Coast, [50] changing from two 300km endurance races to two single driver 250km sprint races to become the Gold Coast 500.

Sandown was dropped from the original calendar, however was reinstated after the Australian Grand Prix was postponed.[50] It is scheduled to host its first sprint round since 2011.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic

A pre-season test day was planned for all teams at Sydney Motorsport Park. With COVID-19 border closures, this was amended with all Queensland based team to use Queensland Raceway, and Brad Jones Racing and the Victorian teams to use Winton.[51]

The Albert Park round, which was a support category of the Australian Grand Prix, was moved to Sandown Raceway after the Grand Prix was postponed. Whether a Supercars event is held at the rescheduled Grand Prix in November has not been decided.[52]

Series changes

Regulation changes

The championship will award five bonus championship points to the driver who sets the fastest lap. These points will only be awarded in the sprint races.[53]

A third tyre type, the Super Soft, is to be used at the Winton and Darwin events where tyre degradation is much lower than other circuits.[54]

Other changes

Repco, who were already the Supercars’ official automotive parts retailer, will succeed Virgin Australia as the title sponsor of the series until 2025.[55]

A new five-year broadcast deal will commence in 2021. Fox Sports will continue to show all rounds while the Seven Network will take over from Network Ten as the free to air broadcaster, showing six rounds live, including the Bathurst 1000.[56][57]

Notes
  1. Raced as number 100 at the Mount Panorama 500 for promotional reasons.

    References
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    3. "Tickford confirms Holdsworth departure". Supercars Championship. Supercars. 7 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
    4. Herrero, Daniel (23 December 2020). "Randle returns to Tickford". Speedcafe. Speedcafe. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
    5. O'Brien, Connor (3 October 2019). "Waters secures future with multi-year deal". Supercars Championship. Supercars. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
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