Supercars Australia on the hunt for more championships

SUPERCARS Australia, the company behind the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship (VASC), is on the hunt to add more categories to its expanding portfolio.

Matt Braid, Supercars Australia managing director, revealed at this week’s at the Australian Motoring Awards in Melbourne that the business was looking to expand the number of categories it manages.

The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship was a naming-rights sponsor of the event.

Supercars runs and owns the main VASC series, along with its feeder category the Dunlop (or Development) Series. Baird revealed in his speech the second-tier category would soon be known as the Dunlop Super2 Series.

In 2016, Supercars took over ownership of the V8 Utes championship after the old management, Spherix, hit financial troubles, rebranding it as Super Utes. Supercars also took a half share of the Bathurst 12 Hour, being held this weekend, which it co-runs with Bathurst Regional Council.

Baird told the audience to “expect some more categories to be added very soon”.

“A few years ago we had complete focus on V8 Supercars, and what was the associated Dunlop Development series,” Baird said.

“As we move into 2017, we have transformed from being a category-focussed entity, into being a whole of sport business.

“Supercars as a business now includes the Virgin Supercars Championship, with the [manufacturer] support of Holden and Nissan directly, the newly branded Dunlop Super2 Series for our young and up-and-coming future champions, the new Super Utes category, which was specifically designed to link to the ultra-competitive, high-volume utes segment, as well as the Bathurst 12 Hour for the GT3 specification cars.

“And it won’t stop there; please expect some more categories to be added very soon.”

The Supercars MD went on to highlight the company’s ongoing work with Porsche and Toyota, which race at Supercar events with the Carrera Cup and 86 Racing Series respectively.

The Supercars Championship has a history of racing beyond Australian and New Zealand shores to varying success. A street race in Kuala Lumpur was scheduled for last year, but was ultimately cancelled as local organisers fought over the potential spoils.

However, Braid says a round of the championship held in Asia is still something the category hopes to achieve.

“Supercars as a category will continue to be the leading motorsport championship in not only Australia, but the region, as we continue to expand within Asia,” he added.