The rebuild of Basic Motors’ Supercars program is because of take a giant step this weekend at Symmons Plains.
That will sound like an odd factor to say throughout the 2025 championship, by which a Chevrolet driver – Will Brown – leads the factors, there are 5 Chevrolet drivers within the all-important high 10, and Triple Eight leads the groups’ standings.
All that comes after two seasons of Supercars racing underneath the Gen 3 laws, and two drivers’ and groups’ titles. In two seasons and 52 Supercars races, the wins have been cut up Chevrolet 38, Ford 14.
The ‘rebuild’ is in regards to the future, not the current. Subsequent 12 months Triple Eight, the pitlane’s alpha crew, will race Ford Mustangs. Walkinshaw Andretti United, in previous days a constant winner for Holden, will change manufacturers once more, from Ford to Toyota. And the Japanese make is circling for a second crew to run its GR Supra Supercars, and rumours persist that Brad Jones Racing stays a candidate for that function.
Enter – or extra precisely, welcome again – Simon McNamara. The long-time Holden Motorsport and Sponsorship Supervisor has returned to the game, confirming that he has taken on the function of Motorsports Supercars Racing Program Supervisor at Basic Motors.
Between 2007 and 2017 McNamara was liable for Holden’s Supercars successes. A lot of that successful was all the way down to Triple Eight, which raced by way of the 2009 season with out producer branding after being dropped by Ford. Holden and McNamara swooped, the crew swapped its Ford Falcons for Holden Commodores, and the remainder is historical past: eight drivers’ titles and 10 groups’ championships.
Holden Motorsport boss Simon McNamara
Photograph by: Chris Von Wieldt
However when GM shuttered its Holden model, McNamara, a 22-year veteran of the corporate, departed. Triple Eight and fellow Chevrolet crew Erebus Motorsport saved the successful streak alive, however there have been stirrings at each Ford and Toyota.
Virtually precisely three years earlier than McNamara’s return, Ford recruited Ben Nightingale to its communications crew. With a protracted historical past within the pitlane, together with stints with Supercars itself and DJR Group Penske, it was not lengthy earlier than motorsport typically and Supercars specifically have been added to his CV.
Though his function and McNamara’s will not be equivalent, it was on Nightingale’s watch that Ford poached Triple Eight away to not solely race Mustangs however be its homologation crew, a task it has efficiently stuffed for GM.
That transfer creates the considerably odd state of affairs whereby, except one thing unexpected occurs, the one two Supercars champions racing underneath the Chevrolet banner in 2026 shall be Scott McLaughlin in IndyCar and Shane Van Gisbergen in NASCAR.
If BJR defects to Toyota, it additionally implies that the 14-10 numerical benefit Chevrolet enjoys over Ford will evaporate, with 10 Mustangs, eight Camaros and 6 Supras on the grid.
From the surface it seems like excessive on McNamara’s to-do record shall be to circle the wagons and make sure the remaining Chevrolet groups obtain the technical and monetary help they require to be aggressive. However in mild of the incoming adjustments on the grid for 2026, it might effectively be a rocky highway for Chevrolet followers for a minimum of a few seasons.
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For the medium to long-term nevertheless, the information seems a lot brighter. The return of the no-nonsense McNamara wouldn’t have occurred and not using a clear image of what GM plans to do in Supercars within the medium to long-term. Whereas Audi’s nascent System 1 program has seen a few of its different racing applications shrink or disappear altogether, GM’s Cadillac F1 program doesn’t seem like a consider compromising Supercars future – in reality, simply the other.
Clearly, whether or not what comes subsequent from GM includes a brand new mannequin Camaro, Cadillac or one thing else for what would possible be Supercars’ Gen 4, McNamara is certain to play a giant function in what that may appear to be.
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