The big Supercars droughts broken in 2023

The first season of the Gen3 ruleset saw drivers and teams snap long droughts in Supercars.

The new cars saw a number of teams bolt up the leaderboard, making the most of opportunities fighting towards the front.

A number of drivers snapped droughts that seemed to be unbreakable, while teams finally had a moment in the sun.

Championships for Erebus (10 years)

Erebus Motorsport began life in Supercars in 2013 as a three-car Mercedes-AMG squad. It won in 2014 and 2015 with Lee Holdsworth and Will Davison, and in the 2017 Bathurst 1000 with David Reynolds/Luke Youlden. However, the championship seemed too far out of reach — until 2023, when Brodie Kostecki led the Melbourne squad to an historic title double.

Win for Team 18 (10 years)

Darwin was a weekend to remember for a number of teams, especially Charlie Schwerkolt’s Team 18, which tasted victory for the very first time. Schwerkolt’s team began as a satellite Ford Performance Racing outfit in 2014, before racing Walkinshaw Commodores between 2015 and 2018. Come 2019, and Schwerkolt brought in Mark Winterbottom, and a pole in Tasmania seemed to show the team was on the right track. Four years passed, and ‘Frosty’ held off Broc Feeney at Hidden Valley to finally get the job done.

Win for Mark Winterbottom (seven years)

The victory itself was Winterbottom’s first in seven years. The 2015 series champion had been close in his final years at Tickford Racing, but hadn’t even scored a podium with Team 18 until he clung on to a famous victory, the 39th of his brilliant career, in June.

Pole and win for Matt Stone Racing (five years)

On the same weekend, Matt Stone also had some smiles as Jack Le Brocq motored to his team’s first pole and victory. Le Brocq was assured in the Darwin finale, helping MSR complete a famous pole-to-win performance in the Northern Territory sunshine.

Pole for Jack Le Brocq (five years)

Le Brocq was already a race winner, having won with Tickford Racing at Sydney Motorsport Park in 2020. However, he had never claimed a pole position before he pulled one out of the fire in Darwin. The 31-year-old duly converted to victory, just hours after his Truck Assist Camaro was damaged in crash in the earlier race.

Win for Richie Stanaway (six years)

Incoming Penrite Racing driver Richie Stanaway has a remarkable record — two career wins, coming at the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000. The wins were six years apart, Stanaway a co-driver with Cam Waters in 2017 before scoring his first Great Race win with Shane van Gisbergen in October.

Win for David Reynolds (five years)

The driver Stanaway is replacing, David Reynolds, ended a long wait of his own at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500. Reynolds hadn’t won since the 2018 Newcastle finale. He had taken many poles and podiums since, but never quite cracked the top step — until he denied Kostecki in a grandstand finish in the Surfers Paradise finale.