With the 2020 championship season wrapped up let’s take a look at how the teams performed and their potential for 2021.
Red Bull Holden Racing and DJR Team Penske were dominant forces through the season each racking up 8 and 14 race wins respectively, DJR Team Penske also sweeping the drivers, teams’ and manufacturers titles.
While the Red Bull line up will remain the same next season, DJR Team Penske will undergo several changes.
The team loses the backing of American motorsport giant Rodger Penske reverting to Dick Johnson Racing (DJR), while also losing both headline drivers, Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard.
While the pit lane order looks set to remain largely the same some of the smaller teams have strung together some strong performances, making the most of the unusual season.
There have been some incredible performances among the rest of the field.
With Covid-19 restricting the number of team members attending each event, many of the smaller teams seemed to find speed, closing the gap to the teams at the top end of the lane.
Tickford has continued to build on last season’s pace, becoming regular podium contenders this season, with Cam Waters being a true contender at Bathurst.
With James Courtney returning next season the team looks set to build on the strong performance that often saw them knocking on the door of the top two teams.
Two standouts, Walkinshaw Andretti Untitled (WAU) and Brad Jones Racing (BJR) have had incredible performances through their history but have struggled to find consistent pace in recent seasons.
WAU started the season with an all-new line-up, Chaz Mostert and Bryce Fullwood suiting up for the team, the paring proving to be a strong combination that will continue into next season.
The decision to move to an all-new line up proving to be the right one.
BJR also came into the season with two new drivers in Todd Hazelwood and Jack Smith.
Hazelwood alongside Nick Percat has consistently been in the top ten this season each picking up podiums, pole positions with Percat collecting two wins at Sydney Motorsport Park.
After moving to a two-car team running Mustangs, Kelly Racing has also become regular contenders in the championship, particularly with Andre Heimgartner who claimed two podiums this season, one at The Bend and one at Sydney Motorsport Park.
With Rick Kelly retiring from the series, Heimgartner is in a good position to become the lead driver within the team.
One team that hasn’t performed as well is Erebus Penrite Racing. There have been strong performances from Anton De Pasquale, but David Reynolds hasn’t had the same performance.
This may have partially come down to losing his primary engineer Alistair McVean, who wasn’t able to travel with the team when the season restarted.
There are also several questions surrounding what the team will look like next season.
Will De Pasquale take one of the open seats at DJR? What happens to Will Brown who signed a year ago for a full-time 2021 seat?
Normally by this time of years, most drivers have inked a new deal and the driver silly season is wrapping up but this year it seems to just be starting.
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