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No Supercars Return For Rogers

Former Supercars team owner Garry Rogers has ruled out a return to the touring car championship despite two new vacant slots on the grid for 2022.

Supercars is opening tenders for two Racing Entitlement Contracts that have been surrendered in the past, responding to significant interest in growing the grid.

Super2 teams are the most likely to tender, and potentially expand the starting line-up to 26 cars next year, although Rogers and Paul Morris have admitted in the past that they had some interest in a return to Supercars.

Morris was not available to comment for Race News but Rogers was emphatic in his decision to continue down the path he has taken with the Australian Racing Group, built around an ownership stake with his son Barry and fielding many of the TCR Australia Series cars and S5000 single-seaters that race on the ARG program.

“I think we’ve made it pretty clear that we’ve made our call. I have no interest in Supercars,” Rogers confirmed to Race News.

“We’ve got to get things to stack up economically, and I don’t see how that can.”

The REC tender process is being launched today and each license will allow one car to join the Supercars grid.

“This is an opportunity for a new team owner to join the fold or offer an existing team owner the opportunity to expand their program,” said Supercars CEO, Sean Seamer.

“Supercars has already received interest from several parties to purchase their RECs.”

No-one in Supercars will discuss the likely price for the RECs, but it will be nowhere near the high-water mark when licenses changed hands for $1 million each.

Their value has fallen significantly with the hand-back of the two open licenses, perhaps to as little as $250,000.

But Seamer said Supercars is now getting some fresh blood.

“We’ve recently had new team owners join the Repco Supercars Championship, with the likes of Tony Quinn and Stephen Grove coming on board in 2021,” he said.

Quinn has a significant stake in the Red Bull Ampol Racing team as part of Roland Dane’s decision to win back his Supercars commitments, while Grove and his son Brendon have bought into Kelly Racing and are widely tipped to take total control of the Mustang squad – perhaps as soon as the end of the current season.

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