How Camaro puts van Gisbergen in exclusive group

Only five drivers have won with three different brands — and the introduction of the Camaro could help Shane van Gisbergen become the sixth.

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship sees the Chevrolet Camaro replace the Holden Commodore in the Gen3 era.

The Camaro will take on the Ford Mustang in the first season of the next Gen3 rules.

All Holden teams from 2022 — bar Walkinshaw Andretti United, which shifted to Ford — will race the new Gen3 Camaro from 2023.

That includes van Gisbergen’s Red Bull Ampol Racing, which is the homologation team for General Motors.

A Camaro victory would help van Gisbergen take victories in Fords, Holdens and Chevrolets.

Only five drivers in ATCC/Supercars history have won races for three different brands — Bob Jane, Jim Richards, Jim Richards, Will Davison and Scott McLaughlin.

Jane achieved success in Camaros Pic: AN1 Images

Jane was the first to do so; he won the single-race championships aboard a Jaguar in 1962 and 1963, and later won at Calder in a Mustang in 1969.

His greatest successes, however, came in Camaros — Jane won eight races and two more championships in ZL-1s.

Richards won four championships between 1985 and 1991 — two in BMWs, and two in Nissans. He later added wins in Holdens when Gibson Motorsport swapped Skylines for Commodores.

Longhurst is one of five drivers to have won the Bathurst 1000 in both Fords and Holdens.

He took his first championship race victory in a Ford Sierra at Lakeside in 1988, the year he won his first Great Race. He then raced and won in BMWs.

Longhurst added a second Bathurst victory with Mark Skaife and the Holden Racing Team, no less, in 2001.

Davison and McLaughlin are two modern-day titans, and both won in vastly different brands for very different teams.

Davison’s first victory came aboard a Dick Johnson Racing Falcon at Eastern Creek in 2008, and he added another at Winton.

McLaughlin became a Volvo cult hero

He then shifted to the Holden Racing Team in 2009 and duly won the Great Race with Garth Tander, before moving to Ford Performance Racing in 2011.

Davison won eight races for FPR in 2012, but moved to Erebus Motorsport in 2014 — and won in Perth in a Mercedes-AMG in 2015 to complete the set.

He returned to Holden with Tekno Autosports and won the 2016 Bathurst 1000 — which was his most recent victory until he won three races for DJR in 2022.

Then, there’s McLaughlin, who won 56 races in his career, the first coming as a Garry Rogers Motorsport rookie at Pukekohe in 2013.

GRM’s move to Volvo in 2014 saw McLaughlin become a cult hero, and he won his first championship race in the team’s S60 in Perth.

McLaughlin then shifted to DJR Team Penske in 2017, and in four years, won 48 races — the most by a Ford driver — and three championships.

Could van Gisbergen become the sixth driver to win with three brands as early as next weekend’s Thrifty Newcastle 500?

Find out when the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship commences in NSW’s second biggest city. Tickets on sale now.