Seven-time series winner Jamie Whincup has welcomed the influx of talent set to enter the Repco Supercars Championship both on and off the track.
Whincup will make way for 19-year-old Broc Feeney at the end of this season and is excited for the new guard set to enter the Repco Supercars Championship in the future.
“I think it’s fantastic,” said Whincup. “That’s the main reason why I’m moving over at the end of the year is to leave some space for the next gen because there are a lot of young kids in other categories at the moment that have shown real potential, they just need to start, an opportunity.
“It’s needed and also in the management world as well.
“There’s been a bit of a changing of the guard you’re seeing a lot of younger personnel take on Team Principal roles and take on management positions within the team as well. That’s also really good to see.”
It comes after Shell V-Power Racing’s Anton De Pasquale was the pacesetter all weekend and if not for a poor start in Race 21, could have clean-swept the opening event of four at Sydney Motorsport Park.
De Pasquale made amends in Race 22 to lead home fellow young gun and former endurance co-driver Will Brown for Erebus Motorsport, while the latter’s teammate Brodie Kostecki also took a podium in the opener under lights on Saturday night.
Whincup predicts many opportunities will emerge in the coming years as his era closes, pointing to Bathurst co-driver Craig Lowndes’ immediate success back in 1996.
“These next few years, there’s me and four or five of the boys, we all started together back in the early-2000s or mid-2000s so we’re all coming to the end of the road, but it’s fantastic for the sport to have all the young kids going fast,” he summarised.
“Once a few young kids start tearing it apart, then it will sort of be like a Lowndesy scenario where you put a 21-year-old in and go ‘oh hang on, they can actually do it’.
“It’s good to see.”