Six predictions for the 2024 Supercars season
The 2024 Repco Supercars Championship bodes to be a cracker, and presents plenty of unknowns after a blockbuster 2023 season.
For 2023, Supercars.com correctly predicted a title decider, wins shared around, wins for rookies and the Super2 champion. So, the sky’s the limit for 2024, right?
Just one week remains until the Thrifty Bathurst 500 kicks off a new season. How will it all shake out? Supercars.com makes six big predictions for the upcoming campaign.
Cam and Broc lead their armies
Cam Waters and Broc Feeney were standouts in 2023, and are in the frame to go even better in 2024.
Waters won three races last season, and had luck been on his side, the Tickford Racing star would been further up the order. The Mildura driver has been Ford's leading light in the seasons after Scott McLaughlin's three-peat, despite Chaz Mostert finishing ahead on points last year.
Feeney pushed Shane van Gisbergen all the way last season, and won five races. Only Brodie Kostecki won more. With Will Brown arriving, Feeney will be determined to become Triple Eight's new top dog.
Reigning champion Brodie Kostecki won't race at Round 1, while van Gisbergen has picked up a new challenge in the US. Waters and Feeney are raring to be best for their respective Ford and Chevrolet camps, and could be set for a title showdown this season.
Tickford wins teams’ championship
Downscaling to two cars looms as a big step forward for Tickford Racing, which has never won the teams’ championship. The team missed out on the 2015 double when Chaz Mostert suffered his Bathurst crash, with Mark Winterbottom winning the drivers’ crown after a dominant mid-season.
Cam Waters and Thomas Randle closed out 2023 right at the pointy end, and were the team’s leading stars.
The Waters/James Courtney pairing finished fourth in the teams’ points, despite Courtney finishing 17th overall. Had Randle been paired with Waters, Tickford would have finished third.
Mostert wins Bathurst
Chaz Mostert finished fourth overall in 2023 despite going winless — but if Walkinshaw Andretti United gets the ingredients right, expect that to be a distant memory in 2024.
Mostert was assured en route to fourth in the 2023 Great Race with Lee Holdsworth, and if WAU unlocks even more pace in 2024, Mostert, with the ever-consistent Holdsworth likely to return, will be hard to stop.
A Bathurst win in October would be Mostert's third, drawing him level with Dick Johnson and Shane van Gisbergen. Critically, Mostert has a clean slate with new engineer Sam Scaffidi, with Adam De Borre departing.
Heimgartner wins in Taupō
Supercars’ debut in Taupō will garner plenty of attention, especially with five New Zealand drivers on the grid.
Local knowledge will count for plenty, and chasing a maiden win for Brad Jones Racing, Andre Heimgartner has runs on the board to do the job. Heimgartner scored a top three at Taupō in the 2013 V8 SuperTourer round, and in 2017, took a pole, two wins and two fastest laps en route to the 2017/18 NZ Touring Cars Championship title.
There will be at least one new race winner
Five new names have taken victory in the last three years, and with a crop of talented drivers in waiting, there are plenty more ready to claim their first wins.
Of the 24 confirmed 2024 drivers, 16 are race winners. That leaves eight drivers yet to win, including two rookies who have yet to start a main game race.
Thomas Randle made big steps forward in his second full year at Tickford Racing. Randle and Bryce Fullwood, who was also solid in his second season with Brad Jones Racing, are realistic chances of stealing a win if their respective cars are up to the challenge.
Then, there's Ryan Wood and Aaron Love, two drivers who won races in their rookie seasons in the Dunlop Series. Wood will race with Walkinshaw Andretti United, which was close yet winless in 2024. Love, meanwhile, debuts for the newly-expanded Blanchard Racing Team.
Murray wins Super2 title
Plagued by bad luck and misfortune in 2023, Cooper Murray has a big chance for redemption in the 2024 Dunlop Series.
The Eggleston Motorsport driver, who has been linked to a Triple Eight wildcard drive, watched teammate Kai Allen beat Zak Best for the 2023 title, but went into the Adelaide finale a mathematical chance to win it himself. Murray won on debut in Newcastle, and won again at Sandown.
Staying out of trouble is key — he was turned around by Allen in Perth, tripped over Aaron Love in Townsville, and suffered a puncture while a comfortable third in Bathurst. Had he not dropped those points, he would have been pushing Allen and Best in the final race for the crown.
