A new turbo-diesel rear-wheel drive pick-up truck racing series will debut as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Supercars championship in 2017.
The series is intended to pitch dual-cab versions of popular tradie/lifestyle utes such as the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux against each other, and replace the V8 Utes series for Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores.
Ford has already ceased production of the Falcon Ute and the Commodore-based Holden Ute will wind up towards the end of 2017.
Moving the category to diesel pick-ups makes sense as it is a booming new vehicle sales segment, whereas homegrown utes represent less than five per cent of the largest segment behind small cars.
“V8 Utes has been a popular and entertaining category but with the changing automotive market it’s important that the Utes series becomes more market relevant,” Supercars Managing Director Matt Braid said.
“Utilising production based turbo-diesel dual cab utes currently available for sale in the Australian market, SuperUtes will open the category to a variety of new manufacturers while still maintaining the spectacular and entertaining elements that make the category such a favourite with the fans.”
SuperUtes will run a truncated six-race program beginning at the Townsville street circuit next July, with other outings at Ipswich, Bathurst, Gold Coast and Newcastle.
Supercars is aiming for 15-20 entries on debut and hopes to cap the grid at 32 entries for 2018, when the calendar will be expanded.
The current V8 Utes will run through the first half of 2017 and then be retired. It is expected a sizeable number of competitors from that category will shift to pick-ups. Supercars is also expecting some of its championship teams to enter.
Unlike Supercars race cars, which are based on a control chassis and facsimile sheetmetal, the utes will be modified production vehicles using a basket of control parts developed by Supercars’ own motorsport department in co-operation with suppliers.
The category is aiming to cap the price of the SuperUtes package at $60,000 on top of the cost of the vehicle itself.
This is the second plan for swapping the popular ute category from the local cars to pick-ups announced in recent years, following an early 2015 proposal by a Gold Coast-based promoter to have 10 new-generation pick-ups on the grid this year.
The former category managers wanted a much higher technical spec similar to Supercars. But Supercars abandoned that when it assumed control of V8 Utes earlier this year.
A prototype pick-up is expected to be presented publicly within a month and potentially appear at the final Virgin Australia Supercars Championship round at Sydney Olympic Park.
Only limited technical guidelines have been announced so far, and the challenge will be to produce technical parity racing across a variety of engine and chassis configurations.
The technical specification for the pick-ups will include a control rollcage, cosmetic aero additions, a control Motec ECU and the possibility of a control transmission and rear axle assembly.
The performance kit will include an exhaust, front and rear shock absorbers and springs, six-piston front and four-piston rear brake callipers and front and rear discs, a pedal box and master-cylinder with brake-bias adjustment, control tyres and control wheels.