Shane van Gisbergen’s miracle NASCAR win completes the creation of a second dimension for Supercars. It is no longer just a destination category. It can be a pathway as well.
The series has always enjoyed a healthy notoriety outside of Australia and New Zealand, largely thanks to the spectacle that is the Bathurst 1000. At least once a year, better-than-casual motorsport viewers around the globe tune in for their glimpse of how loud and unruly the cars are. And how close the racing is. And how much the odd international driver that dares to dip their toe in the water, seemingly regardless of how decorated they are, will struggle to come to terms with getting the best out of these V8-powered monsters with their skinny tyres, locked diff and right-foot braking demand.
The argument for that has always been that, for these Supercars drivers, this is all they’ve done. They’ve been so focused on these unique cars that it is impossible to beat them at their own game.
And to some extent that’s true. Supercars has long been a destination category. If you’re good enough, you get paid handsomely, you race at marquee events, and you can go down in history by winning the Bathurst 1000 - It’s a good life.
For years, young Aussie drivers have effectively faced a fork in the road, pretty much straight out of Formula Ford. Do you want to be a Formula 1 driver or a Supercars driver? If it’s the former, you get on the first plane to Europe and hit the open-wheel ladder. It’s expensive, but if you’ve got the cash, then you’ve got options. Maybe you’ll go all the way like Mark Webber, Daniel Ricciardo or Oscar Piastri. Maybe you’ll sidestep to IndyCar like Will Power. Maybe you’ll run out of money, at which point you can still come home and have a crack at Supercars like Will Davison and James Courtney.
If you don’t have the money to go overseas, you can stay put in Australia and focus on Supercars. Head to Toyota 86s, Porsches or perhaps even straight into Super3 or Super2. Let’s call it the Scott McLaughlin approach.
Except, from what we now know, taking the Scott McLaughlin approach doesn’t lock you into Supercars for life. It can be a destination if you want it to be but it can also be a pathway.
Marcos Ambrose famously used Supercars as a way to springboard into NASCAR, although to a large extent, he had to start from scratch in the US. He had to work his way through Trucks and Xfinity before he graduated to the Cup Series. The Supercars runs he had on the board didn’t afford him the luxury of skipping the steps.
Source: Autosport