EGGLESTON CONSIDERS SUPERCARS MAIN GAME

Eggleston considers Supercars main game – Image: InSyde Media

Leading Supercars development series team Eggleston Motorsport is considering stepping up to the main game after the Gen3 technical rules come into force.

By BRUCE NEWTON

Scheduled for introduction in the Supercars championship in 2023, a cornerstone of Gen3 is making the cars vastly cheaper to build, race and repair than the current Gen2 Supercar.

That has definitely been noted by husband and wife team owners Ben and Rachael Eggleston, who have carved out a business as front-running Super2 entrants, as well as campaigning customer cars in GT and the third-tier V8 Touring Car Series.

The arrival of Gen3 is likely to mean current Ford Mustang and Holden Commodore ZB Gen2 cars will become eligible for Super2, representing a significant step-up in costs for the category.

“I think it’s definitely something (reduced Gen3 costs) that makes it (the Supercars championship) more appealing to a team like us,” Rachael Eggleston told Auto Action.

“Probably also you would feel you are on a more level playing field than what you would be under the current (Gen2) rules.

“We run our team as a business, so whatever we do has to make business sense. We look at everything on its merits and it’s definitely something we have given some thought to.

“We will continue to give it thought for sure.”

The bottom line for such a venture isn’t cut and dried of course, as the Super2 series has a much shorter and therefore cheaper calendar than Supercars.

But the transition of the main game to cheaper cars while the support category inherits more expensive cars does seem to place Super2 teams in a squeeze. “That’s exactly what it does,” said Eggleston.

“Knowing what we know about the market and how much the cars will cost, how much the VF cost when they came down and how much the ZB and Mustang will cost when they come down, at the end of the day they are going to be a lot more expensive and that’s not the way it’s meant to be.

“For us in Super2 to be buying cars that are more expensive than what the main game has, plus the running costs will be more. It seems to be backward.”

Eggleston said Super2 teams were discussing the potential issues with Supercars. At this stage there is no official timeline set for the introduction Gen2 cars to Super2.

“Considering the amount of investment to do that (transition to Gen2), and given what everyone has gone through this year it’s probably not something too many people are going to be wanting to do too soon,” Eggleston said.

“But obviously Supercars are in a position where they change and that filters down to Super2 at the same time. We really hope we find out a bit more about it soon.”

Eggleston Motorsport has yet to finalise its 2021 Super2 driver line-up, although Rachael Eggleston said interest was “pretty good”.

“We are pretty open to how many cars we run and we do have four in total, but we wouldn’t necessarily want to run that many.

“We are probably going to run at least two and probably three next year. Time will tell.”

Jack Perkins and Brodie Kostecki drove two of the team’s Holden Commodores in Super2 in 2020, but Eggleston missed the shortened season’s Bathurst finale because of the pandemic.

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