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Our History
The Repco Supercars Championship (formally Australian Touring Car Championship) is the premier motorsport category in Australasia and one of Australia’s biggest sports.
Globally, it is recognised as the best touring car category in the world and a leader in motorsport entertainment.
From 1960 to 1968 the Australian Touring Car Championship was decided by a single race.
Since 1969 it has been determined by a series, consisting of several events across the country with a visit to New Zealand.
Its title changed from the traditional ‘Australia Touring Car Championship’ to the ‘Shell Championship Series’ in 1999, then the ‘V8 Supercars Championship Series’ in 2003.
A simplified ‘V8 Supercars Championship’ adopted in 2011 was followed by the ‘Virgin Australia Supercars Championship’ with 2016’s naming-rights partnership with Virgin Australia.
From 2021, Repco will back both the championship and the marquee Bathurst 1000 event.
From 1995 to 2012 it was solely the domain of the legendary Holden vs Ford battle. A milestone 2013 was the first year of the Car of the Future (COTF) platform.
The cars were lighter, more economical, had increased agility and were more competitive than their predecessors, and created better racing.
That opened up the Ford vs Holden battleground to other manufacturers, with Nissan joining the championship with its Altima, while the new Gen2 regulations offer further scope.
For 2020, the series returned to the classic Blue Oval against Red Lion rivalry; more manufacturers are expected to join when the newest wave of regulations come into play as part of the upcoming Gen3 era.
Supercars delivers exhilarating and accessible motorsports-led entertainment to engaged and passionate fans, creating a proud and aligned set of partners, race teams and employees.
Chronology of Milestones and Major Events
In 2022, the Ford Mustang will take on the Holden ZB Commodore for the final time before the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 joins the grid in 2023, under the category’s new Gen3 rule package.
The 2023 season will be held at 12 different venues. The season will start (Newcastle) and finish (Adelaide) at street circuits. Sandown and Bathurst will form the enduro season.
1960 |
The first Australian Touring Car Championship is held over a single race at Gnoo-Blas in Orange on February 1, won by David McKay in a Jaguar. |
1962 |
Tasmania hosts its first Australian Touring Car Championship. Held on the Longford circuit (not far from the current Symmons Plains), the one-off 15-lap race is won on March 3 by Bob Jane’s Jaguar 3.8. Fellow Jaguar pilots Bill Pitt and Bill Burns round out the podium. |
1963 |
The Armstrong 500 moves from Phillip Island (its home of three years) to Bathurst and thus begins the event we now know as the Bathurst 1000. The first Armstrong 500 is won by Bob Jane and Harry Firth in a Cortina GT on October 6. |
1964 |
The first Sandown endurance race is held in Melbourne. A six-hour international touring car race, it’s won by the Alfa Romeo Super Ti of Ralph Sach and Italian Roberto Bussinello. The race eventually grows into what becomes known as the Sandown 500. |
1966 |
Mini Coopers dominate Bathurst, taking the first nine positions outright in the Armstrong 500. Victory is taken by Bob Holden and Finn Rauno Aaltonen. |
1969 |
The Australian Touring Car Championship is held as a series of races, rather than a stand-alone race, for the very first time. Across five rounds, the title is decided in favour of Ian Geoghegan’s Mustang in the final at Symmons Plains in Tasmania. The title is Geoghegan’s fifth. |
1970 |
Norm Beechey becomes the first driver to win the Australian Touring Car Championship in an Australian-built car. His Holden Monaro GTS 350 finishes four points clear of Jim McKeown’s Porsche 911. |
1972 |
Peter Brock wins his first Bathurst classic. Making his fourth start in the Hardie Ferodo 500, Brock drives his Holden Torana XU-1 solo to take victory in wet conditions. The win is the first of an eventual nine for the man to become ‘King of the Mountain’. |
1973 |
Group C regulations are introduced, effectively merging the separate rulebooks under which the Australian Touring Car Championship and the annual Bathurst enduro had been conducted. Allan Moffat wins the first ATCC crown under Group C rules in his Ford Falcon GT-HO. The Bathurst 1000 is expanded, moving from 500 miles to being held over 1000 kilometres. |
1975 |
The Seven Network telecasts the Bathurst 1000 – then known as the Hardie-Ferodo 1000 – for the first time in colour. |
1977 |
Allan Moffat and Colin Bond line up for an iconic 1-2 formation finish in the Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst. The Fords crush Holden’s debuting Torana A9X, with the best Holden of Peter Janson and Larry Perkins (making his Bathurst debut) finishing third. |
1978 |
Peter Brock takes pole position at Bathurst in the very first ‘Hardies Heroes’ Top 10 Shootout. A unique concept at the time, Brock’s Torana A9X is fastest against the clock and goes on to win with Jim Richards as co-driver. The Shootout qualifying format would later become a regular part of the championship itself. |
1980 |
Queensland privateer Dick Johnson smashes into a rock while leading the Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst. With his car destroyed, a tearful Johnson appears on national television. Sympathetic viewers begin ringing in to Channel 7 and donate money – matched dollar-for-dollar by Ford – to help get him back on the track. |
1981 |
Dick Johnson returns to the track in a new Tru-Blu Falcon XD, built using the funds raised by fans and Ford. He wins his first Australian Touring Car Championship and teams with John French to win a crash-shortened James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst. |
1982 |
Peter Brock and Larry Perkins become the first drivers to win the Bathurst 1000 while carrying an in-car camera. They lead home a clean sweep of the podium for Commodore drivers with Allan Grice/Alan Browne second and John Harvey/Gary Scott third. |
1983 |
Allan Moffat wins his fourth Australian Touring Car Championship – and first in a Mazda RX-7. It proves to be the final ATCC crown for Moffat. |
1984 |
The end of the Group C regulations for Australian touring car racing is celebrated at Bathurst as Peter Brock and John Harvey spearhead a 1-2 form finish for the Holden Dealer Team in what’s dubbed ‘the last of the big bangers’. |
1985 |
Group A international touring car regulations are introduced to Australia, bringing it in line with the rest of the world. Overseas cars from the likes of Volvo, Jaguar, Ford, BMW, Nissan and Mitsubishi make it hard for the locally produced Holden to compete. |
1986 |
Kiwi Robbie Francevic becomes the oldest man to win the Australian Touring Car Championship aged 44. He also becomes the first – and only! – driver to win the crown driving a Volvo. |
1987 |
Peter Brock wins his last Bathurst 1000 crown. Initially flagged across the line third in the Mobil Commodore he shared with David Parsons and Peter McLeod, he’s promoted to victory after the top two Texaco Sierras are excluded for technical irregularities. |
1989 |
Dick Johnson wins his first full-length Bathurst. Paired with John Bowe, the duo lead all 161 laps to claim victory in their Shell Sierra turbo. This remains the last time one single car led every lap on its way to victory at Bathurst. |
1990 |
The Holden Racing Team is created by Tom Walkinshaw Racing and makes its racing debut in the opening round of the Australian Touring Car Championship at Amaroo Park in Sydney with Win Percy driving. |
1991 |
Nissan wins the Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst with its mighty GT-R in the hands of Jim Richards and Mark Skaife. The victory is the first by a Japanese car in the Australian classic. |
1992 |
Mark Skaife claims his first Australian Touring Car Championship in the swansong of the Nissan GT-R. He and Jim Richards also win a controversial Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst when their Nissan crashes out during a late rain storm and the race is red flagged. Richards’ message to the crowd later on the podium lives on in infamy. |
1993 |
Australian touring car racing adopts the framework of rules that later lead to the V8 Supercar category. Winged, five-litre, V8-powered Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons emerge as the replacement to the international Group A category. |
1994 |
The Holden Racing Team wins its first Australian Touring Car Championship round. Peter Brock, in his return year in a factory Holden, claims two race wins at Eastern Creek to seal the breakthrough victory. |
1996 |
Craig Lowndes wins his first Australian Touring Car Championship in his first season driving for the Holden Racing Team. The rookie sensation takes out the opening round at Eastern Creek on debut and goes on to claim the title. He also teams with Kiwi Greg Murphy to win the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000. |
1997 |
The ‘V8 Supercar’ brand takes over as the banner of Australia’s top category, signaling the start of a new era. Sports marketer IMG link up with the team’s organisation TEGA and create AVESCO (Australian Vee Eight Supercar Company). The category is renamed V8 Supercars but the ‘Australian Touring Car Championship’ title remains for the series before being replaced in 1999. |
1997 |
The first event – the opening round of the Shell Australian Touring Car Championship – is held under the banner of V8 Supercars. |
1999 |
Control tyres are introduced to V8 Supercars for the first time in order to level the playing field. They debut at the non-championship Albert Park event with Bridgestone winning the tender to supply the full field. |
1999 |
The Clipsal 500 in Adelaide is held for the first time on the old Formula 1 circuit. Slightly shortened from its F1 days, the circuit quickly becomes a fan favourite and Craig Lowndes wins the inaugural event for the Holden Racing Team – even after being forced to start on Sunday from the rear of the grid. |
2000 |
A second-tier V8 Supercar series is created as a development category for drivers, teams and personnel. Initially known as the ‘Konica V8 Lites’, the first round is held at Eastern Creek on March 26, 2000 and Dean Canto wins the first series. It is now known as the Dunlop Super2 Series. |
2001 |
The V8 Supercar Championship holds its first overseas event at Pukekohe in New Zealand. Kiwi hero Greg Murphy blitzes the field and wins all three races for Kmart Racing. |
2002 |
Jim Richards becomes the oldest driver to win the Bathurst 1000. At 55 he teams with 1991 and 1992 race-winning partner Mark Skaife to seal victory for the Holden Racing Team. The win is Richards’ seventh in The Great Race, second only to Peter Brock. |
2003 |
‘Project Blueprint’ regulations are introduced to V8 Supercar racing, effectively removing the ongoing fight over parity and standardizing some of the parts beneath the skin of the Falcons and Commodores. |
2003 |
Marcos Ambrose wins his first V8 Supercars Championship and the first for Ford in six years. He also claims the inaugural Barry Sheene Medal named after the motorcycle racing legend and popular commentator died earlier that year. |
2004 |
Marcos Ambrose seals back-to-back V8 Supercars Championships for Ford and Stone Brothers Racing. He competes for one more season before quitting the sport to move to America and race in NASCAR in 2006. |
2005 |
AVESCO is renamed V8 Supercars Australia in the same year that the series races in Shanghai, China, for the first time. An event won by Todd Kelly, this is the first and only time the series competes at the home of the Chinese Grand Prix. |
2006 |
The Seven Network signs a multi-million dollar television broadcast rights deal for V8 Supercars to cover the 2007-2012 seasons and return to telecasting the series for the first time since 1996. |
2006 |
Australian motor racing legend Peter Brock is killed in a tarmac rally accident in Perth on September 8. Out of respect to the nine-time winner of the Bathurst endurance classic, the Peter Brock Trophy is inaugurated for the winners of the race. |
2007 |
Mark Skaife breaks Peter Brock’s long-held record of most victories in the history of the Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercar Championship. The Holden Racing Team driver claims victory in the Queen’s Birthday round held at Eastern Creek in Sydney. |
2008 |
Five-time ATCC/V8 Supercars Champion Mark Skaife retires from full-time V8 Supercar racing and sells his share of the Holden Racing Team. He makes his final appearance for the factory Holden squad at Oran Park, which is also the last-ever ATCC/V8 Supercars event at the Sydney circuit before it is turned into a housing development. |
2009 |
Two marquee events make their long-awaited debut on the V8 Supercars Championship calendar – the Townsville 400 in North Queensland and the Sydney Telstra 500 at Sydney Olympic Park. |
2010 |
Craig Lowndes leads home a TeamVodafone 1-2 form finish at the Bathurst 1000, but the mighty Holden squad can’t stop James Courtney from claiming the V8 Supercars Championship for Dick Johnson Racing – the seventh crown won by DJR, a record at the time. |
2011 |
SEL divests its stake in V8 Supercars and the team owners sell down their holding with Australian Motor Racing Partners Pty Ltd (AMRP) – backed by Sydney-based private equity firm Archer Capital – purchasing 60 percent of V8 Supercars Holdings Pty Ltd, leaving the teams with approximately 40 percent via 28 Racing Entitlement Contracts. Cochrane remains Chairman with a stake in the new business and exits SEL. |
2011 |
Triple Eight Race Engineering becomes the first team to clean sweep the three major crowns in the sport, in its second season after switching from Ford to Holden. It seals the Drivers’ Championship with Jamie Whincup, the Teams’ Championship and also the Fujitsu Series (now Dunlop Series) with Andrew Thompson. |
2012 |
Nissan announces it will join the V8 Supercars Championship in 2013 in partnership with Kelly Racing. |
2013 |
The new-generation Car of the Future V8 Supercars debut at the pre-season test day at Sydney Motorsport Park. Brad Jones Racing’s Jason Bright and Fabian Coulthard record the day’s fastest times, ahead of Craig Lowndes. |
2013 |
Craig Lowndes beats Mark Skaife’s record of most V8 Supercar Championship race wins, notching up 91 at Barbagallo Raceway in his #888 Red Bull Racing Commodore. |
2014 |
It is announced Team Penske would enter the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship by combining forces with Dick Johnson Racing, with two-time Champion Marcos Ambrose returning to the category to pilot the Ford Falcon. |
2014 |
On Volvo’s first race day in Supercars, Scott McLaughlin finishes second in the second race of the season opening Clipsal 500. He made ‘give it some jandal’ a household expression with his colourful post-race interview. |
2015 |
Craig Lowndes becomes the first driver in history to earn 100 V8 Supercars race wins, in Darwin. Incredibly, the victory was the 888th race in Championship history. Lowndes also takes his sixth Bathurst 1000 victory, with Steven Richards. |
2016 |
Virgin Australia enters into a major partnership with V8 Supercars and the championship is renamed to the 'Virgin Australia Supercars Championship'. |
2017 |
Factory Holden backing moves from Walkinshaw Racing to Triple Eight’s rebranded Red Bull Holden Racing Team, which takes Jamie Whincup to a record-extending seventh championship. Whincup wins the crown in a dramatic finale at the maiden Coates Hire Newcastle 500, as Scott McLaughlin falls just short in a successful first season with Shell V-Power Racing. DJR Team Penske does, though win the teams’ championship, and McLaughlin writes his name in Supercars history with a stunning 2:03.8312s lap of Mount Panorama in the Top 10 Shootout to take pole for the Bathurst 1000. It is one of a record 16 ARMOR ALL Pole Awards the Kiwi takes during the year. Erebus Motorsport, in just its second season with Holdens, wins the Great Race with eventual Barry Sheene Medalist David Reynolds and Luke Youlden. |
2018 |
Holden’s new ZB Commodore becomes the first Supercar built to the new Gen2 rules package, and the maiden hatchback on the grid. Two rounds will be held in South Australia for the first time since 1977, as the new Bend Motorsport Park facility joins the season-opening Adelaide 500 on the calendar. Night racing also returns to Australia for the first time in more than two decades, at Sydney Motorsport Park. Scott McLaughlin wins a maiden title after a year-long fight with Shane van Gisbergen, in the perfect farewell for Ford's Falcon. Craig Lowndes and Garth Tander bow out of full-time driving, Lowndes after taking a seventh Bathurst 1000 victory with Steven Richards. |
2019 |
The highly-anticipated Mustang replaces the Falcon as Ford's Supercars challenger, with outstanding success. Bathurst becomes the opening round of the PIRTEK Enduro Cup, and Barbagallo Wanneroo Raceway hosts the SuperNight for the first time. Aboard his Shell V-Power Racing #17, Scott McLaughlin defends his title in a record-breaking campaign headlined by 18 race wins. McLaughlin also took his maiden Bathurst 1000 alongside Alex Premat, who became the first Frenchman to conquer the Mountain. Shane van Gisbergen was again his nearest championship rival, while Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes' reuniting netted the PIRTEK Enduro Cup. The series bids farewell to Nissan after seven seasons as Kelly Racing announce a switch to Ford for 2020, while Garry Rogers Motorsport also depart. |
2020 |
One-car teams are eliminated from the series – by choice – as Team 18, Matt Stone Racing and Tekno Autosports each elect to double in size, the latter rebranded as Team Sydney. The season got underway in Adelaide, before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold and forced a four-month hiatus. Amid the layoff, teams engineered health devices to combat the pandemic, while drivers took to online racing to fill the competitive gap. When the season returned at Sydney Motorsport Park, the world had changed. Social distancing was a norm, personnel numbers had reduced, and fans were forced to stay home. However, the racing spectacle rose to another level, with IndyCar-bound Scott McLaughlin winning 13 races en route to a third straight championship. The 11-event season, held across seven circuits, ended at Bathurst with Shane van Gisbergen breaking through for a remarkable maiden triumph. |
2021 |
The championship is renamed to the 'Repco Supercars Championship’ after the Automotive Parts company entered into a major partnership with Supercars. Repco also acquired naming rights for the marquee Bathurst 1000 event, which will be the only endurance race of the 2021 season. The season comprises of 32 races across 12 events, with Mount Panorama to hold two championship race meetings for the first time since 1996. The 2021 grid undergoes big tweaks, with Dick Johnson Racing and Erebus Motorsport welcoming all-new driver line-ups, as several other teams also change sponsors and drivers. |