Gen3 builds advancing in 2022 post-season

The Supercars fraternity is busy amid an off-season centred on new-car Gen3 builds.

Teams will break for Christmas before resuming their builds.

There are 76 days from Christmas Eve to the first day of track action in Newcastle on March 10.

There are just 37 days to the Queensland teams’ shakedown on January 30, with Victorian teams to run on February 1.

The majority of teams have chassis, with some teams already assembling cars together.

PremiAir Racing will receive turnkey Triple Eight-built Camaros; other teams are assembling cars in-house.

Notably, Brad Jones Racing has painted all four chassis, with one car already housing an engine.

Pic: Matt Stone Racing

Engines are being distributed to teams — each engine will be built by the respective engine builders.

They will also run on the dynometer by Supercars technical staff.

Each Camaro team will be randomly distributed a 5.7-litre General Motors engine, with Ford teams a 5.4-litre Coyote plant.

Teams’ Gen3 builds were underway during the second half of the season after chassis were delivered.

Jones, who took ownership of a complete chassis in August, was looking forward to attaching bodywork.

“A lot of the components we have are bolted on this car,” Jones said in a BJR video.

“This one is starting to take shape as a race car. The others in the workshop are slowly starting to progress.

Pic: Brad Jones Racing

“We’ve got four cars to build in very short time. The planned test for these cars is February 1 at Winton.

“The next exciting part of this project is we’re going to hang the bodywork on it.”

The 2023 season will be the first in a decade to have an all-new grid of cars.

Just one team — Walkinshaw Andretti United — has switched allegiances.

WAU is swapping GM machinery for Fords, having raced Commodores between 1990 and 2022.

The Gen3 prototypes were tested for a final time at Queensland Raceway on December 12.

Attention then shifted to car builds, with category motorsport head Adrian Burgess relaxed about the timelines.

He also reiterated that tweaks may happen early in the season, with a comparison made to Formula 1’s issue with porpoising in early 2022.

“It’s always one minute to midnight,” Burgess said.

“It’s the same when the ZB came out [in 2018], it’s the same when the Mustang came out [in 2019]. It’s the same when the Car of the Future came out.

“All the best intent has 25 cars sat in the garages in December and everyone goes away and has a month holiday at Christmas, but it doesn’t happen like that.

“When we have 25 cars running… there will be some reliability that creeps in. That’s the standard evolution of a race car."

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will commence in Newcastle next March.

Tickets are on sale on Supercars.com and Ticketek.com.

2023 Gen3 test schedule*

Monday January 30: Queensland Raceway (Queensland teams shakedown)Wednesday February 1: Winton Motor Raceway (Victorian teams shakedown)Tuesday February 7: Winton Motor Raceway (Victorian teams test)Thursday February 9: Queensland Raceway (Queensland teams test)Wednesday February 22: Sydney Motorsport Park (all teams)

*Dates subject to change