That's not been the case and now the racing promoter is seriously looking at selling its share in the business unless attitudes within the RACE organisation shift. Via its ownership stake of Racing Australia Consolidated Enterprises Ltd (RACE), the Australian Racing Group had hoped to have Trans Am and its other categories play a bigger part of the Supercars support roster. It wouldn't be until the 2021 Bathurst 1000, more than a year later, that Trans Am would feature on the Supercars support card again.Įven that was only by force majeure when the Australian Racing Group, which had just bought a stake in Supercars, needed to close out the calendar for its categories – effectively merging the Bathurst 1000 and ill-fated Bathurst International events. Trans Am has continued to grow across Australia (Supplied)
He was off talking with you and someone else and I grabbed and I said to Lee, 'Get back on the bonnet just quickly, we're got to get this photo!' Mate, it's the most epic photo." "That little bloke from Supercars, I don't know who it was, but he was going off. My grand plan of a photoshoot got railroaded."īrett Holdsworth added, "You do know what happened after that, don't you? Because I said to my team, 'mate, there's no effing way I'm letting this go without getting a photo'. "At that time, there were a lot of sensitivities about Trans Am and that class and how it could be seen as a rival for Supercars. We knew that Gen3 was coming or some variant of Mustangs and Camaros, or whatever it might be. "I don't think Gen3 had launched at that point. Even just being at that event, the fact that these cars looked very similar. "Because at the time there was a lot of controversy about Trans Am. "The photoshoot got stopped abruptly by someone from Supercars, who said 'You guys cannot be having these two cars next to each other!'
#AUSTRALIAN V8 SUPERCARS TV#
"For the local paper and the TV news, we got Lee's Ford Mustang out and Chevrolet Camaro Trans Am car, placed them on the front grid down near the Adelaide bridge and went to take a photo," Australian Racing Group media manager Grant Rowley said on his Parked Up podcast with Lee and Brett Holdsworth. Turtle Wax Trans Am regularly boasts fields around 30 cars (Supplied)Īlthough Supercars shut it down, a mobile phone photo (pictured top of story) was snuck in while Trans Am organisers argued their case. The first public act of hostility from Supercars happened two years ago at the Adelaide 500 when a photoshoot with two brothers, Brett and Lee Holdsworth, and their Trans Am Chevrolet Camaro and Supercars-spec Ford Mustang was kiboshed. The latest saga isn't the first feud between Supercars and Trans Am, however. However, there are whispers even that might not happen for the same reason.īoost Mobile owner Peter Adderton, who sponsors Kostecki and his teammate Will Brown in Supercars, has publicly said he'll back the entry – though that hinges on approval from Erebus Motorsport.
Put simply, Supercars didn't think it was a good look for their championship leader to race in the de-facto rival series.īear in mind also that van Gisbergen has been swanning around the world racing sports cars and rally cars without any opposition.Īnother Supercars star Brodie Kostecki is poised to fill that Trans Am vacancy at the forthcoming SpeedSeries round. While his team Triple Eight Race Engineering claimed there was no outside influence, it's widely understood Supercars management put pressure on the team to axe the outing. Shane van Gisbergen leads the Repco Supercars Championship for Red Bull Ampol Racing (Getty)Īfter a test at Queensland Raceway, his long-awaited competitive cameo at the same circuit was suddenly scratched amid "political pressures" from an unnamed source.
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