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Bathurst wildcard plans for Eggleston Motorsport

V8 Supercars development series frontrunner Eggleston Motorsport is looking at fielding a wildcard entry for this year’s Bathurst 1000.

Taz Douglas, Eggleston Motorsport

Taz Douglas, Eggleston Motorsport

Eggleston Motorsport

Eggleston Motorsport
Paul Dumbrell, Eggleston Motorsport
Car of Taz Douglas, Eggleston Motorsport
Car of Taz Douglas, Eggleston Motorsport
Jamie Whincup, Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden
Jamie Whincup, Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden

The three-car Dunlop Series team currently fields pre-Car of the Future Triple Eight-built Commodores for Paul Dumbrell, Taz Douglas, and Liam McAdam.

But the front-running squad is looking to bolster its stable by one for the Bathurst 1000 this year, boss Ben Eggleston revealing to Motorsport.com that if a Triple Eight-built Car of the Future chassis is available, then a wildcard berth in the main race could well happen.

“Totally, 100 per cent. If we could get the right car from Triple Eight we’d love to do it,” Eggleston said.

“We would do it this year if the right car was available. It’s all about the car. We’ve got the right team to do it, we’ve got some really good guys.

“There are some good drivers around, it just all depends on the dollars, and current car availability. That’s the key.”

Full-time main series switch not out of the question

A Bathurst 1000 wildcard entry could be the first step towards Eggleston Motorsport making a full-time switch to the V8 Supercars main series.

Having already tasted success in both the third-tier Kumho Series and second-tier Dunlop Series, Eggleston says moving to the main game is an obvious next step.

However, he says the timing has to be right, and that he’s not willing to gamble the successful team he’s built just to be on the main series grid.

“We’ve won the Kumho Series, we’ve won the Dunlop Series, it would be a natural progression for us to step up,” Eggleston added.

“It’s just a matter of getting the right car and right environment to make it happen. The short answer is we’d love to do it. It’s just a matter of the right opportunity.

“And it’s got to be financially viable. That’s the key. Everyone is doing it pretty tough. You can put it on paper, but the numbers don’t always stack up. Until we can prove that it is financially viable, it makes it difficult to make the step.”

COTF in demand

Even if the team doesn’t put together a wildcard entry for Bathurst, it could still look to update its Dunlop Series machinery to Car of the Future-spec cars.

But, as is the case with the wildcard plan, Eggleston says its all dependant on Triple Eight having the right hardware on offer.

“There are a few plans in the pipeline, but nothing really serious yet,” he said.

“It depends where the category is heading really, V8 Supercars as a whole. We’ll keep our eye on it and see what’s good bang for buck. It’s a big spend for a COTF car, and there’s not much for sale at the moment. So to even try and find not just one car, but a couple for sale, is difficult.

“Triple Eight would be the obvious place to go, but they haven’t got any at the moment. We’ve been speaking to Triple Eight about that, and we’ll see what happens over the next couple of months. We should know more by Townsville or Sandown.”

As exclusively revealed by Motorsport.com, Triple Eight is looking to expand its chassis manufacturing programme to help keep the main series hardware fresh, and to keep up with demand from Dunlop Series teams.

That could mean a new car for Jamie Whincup as soon as the Sandown 500, which would mean Whincup’s current car could feasibly end up on the market.

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