Garry Rogers Motorsport could return to the Supercars grid as soon as next month, with advanced plans for a wildcard entry in the Bathurst 1000.
GRM has been absent from the Supercars grid so far this year, a row between major backer Boost Mobile and the category over control uprights in late 2019 leaving the team without the funding to continue.
That ended a two-decade stint in Australia’s top-tier, which yielded a famous Bathurst 1000 win in 2000, GRM opting to focus on its customer TCR and S5000 programmes this season.
There could be a Supercars comeback on the cards, though, with the recent lockdown in Melbourne inspiring GRM to begin working on a Bathurst 1000 wildcard entry.
Hardware is no issues, the team still in possession of its two ZB Commodores with current-spec Walkinshaw V8 engines.
“There’s some interest for us,” team boss Barry Rogers told the official Supercars website.
“I mean look, we’ve always said we’re in motor racing; what motivates us is bringing on young guys, that type of thing.
“We’re just seeing potentially what’s about and hopefully we might be able to give a bit more information as the week unfolds.
“To be honest with you, we’ve probably been a bit more serious about it since we’ve been in lockdown in Melbourne with our staff at home.
“You want to try to get them motivated and keep them all going, so we just sort of thought if it was the right make-up [we will look at it].”
Rogers added that a younger driver line-up would be the preference, the team famous for giving youngsters a start and boasting an honour roll including the likes of Jamie Whincup (who was promptly fired after a season), Scott McLaughlin and Lee Holdsworth.
“This is no disrespect to any old-timers that have been around, but we wouldn’t want to fill the seat with a couple of blokes who have been around the block a million times,” he said.
“For us, the right make-up is good young talent that we believe can go out and put their best foot forward. We want to feel like we’re bringing a new group through.
“We want some young guys that we believe are up to it, [team owner] Garry [Rogers] has got a group of drivers he’s thinking about and we’ll make a decision on it hopefully this week.”
The Bathurst 1000 will be the only two-driver endurance race on the 2020 Supercars schedule, and is now locked in as the season finale.
It’s scheduled to take place between October 15-18.
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