How the V8 grid will look in 2021
THE Supercars grid will look a little different this year.
Defending and three-time series champion Scott McLaughlin has gone, as has American motorsport giant Team Penske.
The official Holden Racing Team is no more and former champion and two-time Bathurst winner Rick Kelly has also bid goodbye to fulltime racing.
There has been plenty of movement in the Supercars off-season so far. The grid is set. This is how it looks for 2021.
DICK JOHNSON RACING Will Davison, Anton De Pasquale
There has been a name change and a double-driver change for the champions for 2021.
Former Erebus Motorsport young gun Anton De Pasquale and Supercars journeyman and twotime Bathurst winner Will Davison will race for the Ford squad.
After winning three consecutive Supercars championships, Scott McLaughlin has left the series to compete full-time in IndyCar in the US with Team Penske. McLaughlin’s teammate of the past four years, Fabian Coulthard has also departed. The squad has reverted to the name Dick Johnson Racing after Penske announced in October it was quitting Supercars.
TRIPLE EIGHT/RED BULL AMPOL RACING TEAM Jamie Whincup, Shane van Gisbergen
Retains the same driver line-up for a fifth year with seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup and Bathurst champion Shane van Gisbergen.
After four years as the factorybacked Holden Racing Team, the squad bid farewell to the official support of Holden with an emotional victory for van Gisbergen and Garth Tander at Mount Panorama last year. Ampol replaced Holden as the team’s conaming rights sponsor, but the team will still campaign in a ZB Commodore before the new Gen 3 regulations come in from 2022.
Triple Eight will sit behind DJR in the pit-lane order after finishing second in the team’s championship.
Tickford Racing has downsized to three cars for 2021 following Lee Holdsworth’s departure in January after a two-year stint.
Cameron Waters, who was second in the drivers’ championship to McLaughlin last year, James Courtney and Jack Le Brocq continue on with the Ford squad. Waters is coming off his best season in which he also finished second at Bathurst alongside Will Davison.
EREBUS MOTORSPORT Will Brown, Brodie Kostecki
It’s a double-driver change for Erebus this year after De Pasquale’s departure to DJR and the shock exit of 2017 Bathurst winner David Reynolds. Brown, 22, and Kostecki, 23, take the seats having partnered the departing duo as co-drivers at last year’s Bathurst.
Reynolds and Erebus confirmed in December he was leaving the squad just one year into a 10-year deal amid reports of tensions within the team.
WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI UNITED Chaz Mostert, Bryce Fullwood
Walkinshaw Andretti United retains its line-up with Fullwood, 22, awarded a contract extension after finishing his rookie year with a podium and four top-10 finishes.
Mostert’s (below) fifth place in the championship equalled his career-high fifth after crossing from Tickford Racing.
KELLY GROVE RACING David Reynolds, Andre Heimgartner
A new name and a new driver after David Reynolds was confirmed as the rebranded team’s big offseason recruit last week following five years with Erebus Motorsport.
The 2017 Bathurst winner steps into the Ford Mustang vacated by Rick Kelly, who announced he was stepping away from full-time driving at the end of last season.
Andre Heimgartner enters his third year with the team after last year’s 14th finish.
Reynolds will be hoping to bounce back from a challenging 2020 when he missed the top-10 (12th) for the first time since 2016.
BRAD JONES RACING Nick Percat, Todd Hazelwood, Macauley Jones, Jack Smith
The Albury-based operation is unchanged in 2021. Percat is back for a fifth season after a career-best finish of seventh last year.
Hazelwood returns for a second year, Jones for his third full-time season, while 21-year-old Smith resigned after his efforts as a rookie season last year.
TEAM SYDNEY Fabian Coulthard, Garry Jacobson
Fabian Coulthard spearheads the new-look Team Sydney after five years at DJR Team Penske and a sixth place last season as then teammate Scott McLaughlin went on to claim a third straight drivers’ crown.
Garry Jacobson was this week confirmed as the team’s second driver. Alex Davison and Chris Pither have moved on.
TEAM 18 Mark Winterbottom, Scott Pye
Team 18 will continue with the same line-up for the second year in a row. Winterbottom and Pye arrived in 2020 when the team expanded to a two-car operation. Both finished just inside the top-10 with Winterbottom 10th and Pye ninth.
MATT STONE RACING Jake Kostecki, Zane Goddard
After sharing a car as rookies last year, Kostecki and Goddard both return with full-time drives. Garry Jacobson has departed.
BLANCHARD RACING Tim Slade
After a season out of full-time Supercars racing, Tim Slade returns with Tim Blanchard’s new solo operation.
Slade co-drove with departing Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin at Bathurst last year after four years with Brad Jones Racing.