IF there are warning bells sounding in the Chevrolet camp after the opening day of the Melbourne SuperSprint, it’s with good reason.
While Ford was tipped to be the dominant force in 2026 Supercars, the Camaro fared reasonably well last month at Sydney Motorsport Park – traditionally Blue Oval territory – to breathe life into the GM faithful.
But in the space of eight hours yesterday, that bubble might just have been burst.
Albert Park has been an extreme Chevy stronghold to the point where it had won all 11 races run there across the opening three years of the Gen3 ruleset.
Yesterday, blue reigned supreme, with a sprinkling of Toyota red mixed in (gold is now the designated GM colour).
In Qualifying for Race 4, there was just one Camaro in the top nine.
In Qualifying for Race 5, which set the grid for today’s race, it was Ford/Ford/Toyota/Toyota/Ford at the pointy end.
Then, worst of all, Chevrolet failed to get a car in the top eight in the 19-lap Thursday race, with Anton De Pasquale its top finisher in ninth.
It’s the first time in 34 years that GM has suffered such indignity.
Specifically, the last ATCC/Supercars Championship race without a GM brand in the top eight was the opening leg of the 1992 Wanneroo round where the Group A Ford Sierras, Nissan GT-Rs and BMW M3s were too good for Holden’s VL Commodore.
On that day, it was Larry Perkins being best of the Commodore contingent in ninth.
Circling back to the original point, such a dire outcome for GM yesterday is only amplified by the fact it had always run so strongly at Albert Park – and not just through Triple Eight (Erebus Motorsport and Matt Stone Racing have multiple wins here in Gen3).
GM and its teams have thus far been unwilling to kick up a stink about parity; whether that stance continues if such results persist will be interesting to monitor.
Ford trio Matt Payne, Brodie Kostecki and Broc Feeney on the Race 4 podium. Pic: Ross Gibb