SINCE the 2023 Adelaide 500, sightings of S5000 machinery have been few and far between.
Two appeared at the inaugural Canberra Festival of Speed in early March, for instance.
So, where exactly is the full fleet of the Garry Rogers Motorsport-built V8-powered open-wheelers?
“There’s been rumours of going overseas – there’s no plans of doing any of that, to be honest,” GRM director Barry Rogers said on the V8 Sleuth Podcast powered by Castrol.
“Garry has a big shed down at his farm; we’ve parked them up, let the dust settle and see what happens.
“Whether Motorsport Australia change their tune enough that it becomes something that we can have another go at, we’ll see what happens this year.
“But if it goes past this year, they’re done.”
Now into May, that means the clock is ticking to save the category from extinction.
Rogers’ reference to Motorsport Australia relates to the Superlicence system, which remains a bugbear of his even after various revisions.
Specifically, the fact that just six points are attached to winning the S5000 title, when 15 are required to become Supercars-eligible – meaning three frontrunning seasons of S5000 would be necessary to qualify for a Superlicence.
While Rogers admits the open-wheel market in Australia is problematic, he does feel the category could still have legs in the right circumstances.
“If that (Superlicence points system) was automatically changed tomorrow, would there be 10 ready to come in? Probably not, but you would have a good foundation to start,” said Rogers.
“I think you could build a grid of 15 pretty comfortably if the points were sensible.”
Names to have raced in S5000 over the years include ex-Formula 1 drivers Rubens Barrichello, Giancarlo Fisichella and Roberto Merhi.
