THE Stan Sports announcement of broadcast details this week for the ARG-run ‘SpeedSeries’ gave away another piece of news that has otherwise slipped under the radar – V8 Touring Cars are returning as part of the category line-up.
Originally created in 2008, the series was brought into the Australian Racing Group fold a few years ago and has remained under the hand of Category Manager and long-time administrator Liam Curkpatrick.
It began racing under the Super3 banner (which is owned by Supercars) in 2019 while still running a mixture of rounds on the Supercars Championship support bill as well as the Shannons Nationals.
Since 2020 it has run at Supercars Championship events in combined fields with Super2 to ensure a strong grid of cars.
That won’t change this year as pre-2013 Commodores and Falcons will continue to race in Super3 and Super2 will remain the domain of Car of the Future-era Falcons, Commodores and Nissan Altimas.
TV DEAL: The details on ARG’s SpeedSeries and its new Stan Sport TV deal
However, the V8 Touring Cars banner – controlled by ARG – will be brought back as part of the ARG SpeedSeries, giving owners of V8 Supercars up to and including the end of the Project Blueprint era Commodores and Falcons (2012), another place to race their cars in addition to Super3.
The V8 Touring Cars offering this year is expected to be a handful ARG SpeedSeries events – likely two or three – with a focus on returning somewhat to the category’s roots and encouraging car owners, particularly those with older models, to return to the track.
The move also pre-empts next year’s expected re-establishment of the V8 Touring Car Series, when the current ZB Commodore and Mustang GT from the Repco Supercars Championship move into the Super2 Series and the Car of the Future era cars move to run as Super3 cars.
The ‘Kumho V8 Classic Series’, set to be run as part of the Australian Motor Racing Series under AASA sanction – not connected to the current V8 Touring Car/Super3 categories or their management but also run for the same era of ex-V8 Supercars – is due to kick off at Sydney Motorsport Park on February 18/19.
Between Super3, V8 Touring Cars and the Kumho V8 Classic Series, there’s a plethora of places for owners of pre-2013 V8 Supercars to run their cars in 2022.
