Walkinshaw won't commit to Camaro
Walkinshaw Andretti United won't commit to running the Chevrolet Camaro in Supercars just yet.
General Motors Camaro ZL1 of Chaz Mostert, Walkinshaw Andretti United
Supercars
It was confirmed earlier today that the Camaro is coming to Supercars in 2022 as part of the cheaper, more coupe-friendly Gen3 regulations.
Crucially, the Camaro will keep a GM product on the grid, offering the best opportunity to retain Holdens fans once the brand disappears from the series.
WAU going down the Camaro path is a somewhat obvious fit, given there's an existing link between Walkinshaw Automotive and GM through a number of road car programmes.
The team also investigated building a Camaro under the current Supercars regulations, abandoning the plan as the body didn't fit the existing control chassis.
But while official Gen3 renders distributed by Supercars include a WAU Camaro, director Ryan Walkinshaw says the team is yet to commit to the car.
"We haven't committed to anything for 2022," he said.
"We still have some genuine interest from other manufactures that we're in discussions with. We'll make a decision about what product we end up running in 2022 probably towards the beginning or middle of next year.
We may [run the Camaro], but at the same time we’ve got discussions going on with other manufacturers as well and we don’t need to commit to Camaro now.
"We can commit to Camaro halfway through this year or even later if we really wanted to, so I don’t see the value in committing to it right now with other potential options we can explore.
"It doesn’t mean we’re not going to run Camaro, I’d be excited and very happy to run Camaro, but I’d like to see where these discussions go with other manufacturers as well."
Walkinshaw recently revealed that he was close to bringing a new manufacturer into the category this year, only for talks to be scuppered by the global pandemic.
Now more details on Gen3 are available, he's keen to get back into the market place and see if he can still woo a third make to the series.
"I think it’s important that the teams, not just myself but other teams in pitlane, take advantage of the opportunity with Gen3 and start pushing new manufacturers and try and bring them into the category," he said.
"The category will be strong with Camaro and Mustang, but it’ll only be stronger if there’s a Camaro, a Mustang and one or two other brands as well.
"I’d like to try and be a part of that if the opportunity exists.
"I think the important thing is now that with the change of the chassis we'll be able to allow more body shapes. So that opens the doors to a lot of other products in car company's portfolios that they actually want racing, sporty cars as opposed to four-door sedans.
"Toyota has got the Supra, for example, Jaguar has the F-Type, all these sorts of sexy, stylish performance cars that, currently, there is no way to race in Supercars.
"How confident am I [of securing a new manufacturer]? It's a pretty turbulent world out there at the moment. I haven't got much confidence in having foresight of anything of that nature.
"We'll just do the best hob we can and pitch it as strongly as we can.
"Supercars has given us the ammunition we need to go back and push those conversations further now there's more detail around Gen3."
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