Manufacturer | Holden |
---|---|
Team Principal | Wayne Russell |
Race Drivers | 62. Aaren Russell |
Chassis | Holden VF Commodore |
Debut | 1994 |
Drivers' Championships | 0 |
Round wins | 0 |
Pole positions | 0 |
2015 position | 17th (108 points) |
Novocastrian Motorsport is an Australian Supercars Championship team based in Newcastle, New South Wales.
The team made its competition debut at the 1994 Bathurst 1000, with owner Wayne Russell and Bernie Gillon driving a Holden VL Commodore. The car retired after 71 laps with a mechanical failure. Russell entered the car in the next season of the Australian Touring Car Championship, entering 5 of the 10 rounds that season. He finished a best of 14th at both Phillip Island and the final race at Oran Park. The car finished 15th and the last classified car at the hands of Russell and Ric Shaw at the 1995 Bathurst 1000, despite coming home 32 laps down.
Now in a VP Commodore, Russell entered 4 rounds plus Bathurst in 1996 - Eastern Creek, Bathurst (sprint), Mallala and Oran Park. He managed a best result of 13th in race one at Mallala. The same combination as the previous year only managed 4 laps in the wet 1996 Bathurst 1000 before John Trimbole crashed into Russell behind the safety car. 1997 began the teams' decline, with entry for only three events (Sandown, Eastern Creek and Oran Park) and cracking the top 20 once all season. Russell and Shaw's final Bathurst appearance ended in a crash on lap 126. A diminishing budget led to entry for only two rounds in 1998, at Phillip Island and Mallala respectively before the team moved to production car racing, running BMW Z3s.
Novocastrian Motorsport re-surfaced in the Development Series in 2007 with Wayne's son Drew running a Holden VX Commodore. The team over the course of the next few seasons began the long climb up the grid, which was boosted by the introduction of a second car for Drew's brother Aaren in 2010, with the team also switching over to a pair of ex-Brad Jones Racing Ford BF Falcons. 2010 saw both brothers finish inside the top 10 in the championship, despite a heavy crash for Drew at Bathurst.