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Garry Rogers Motorsport has officially taken the reins of the emerging Australian S5000 class, effecting a seamless handover at Winton Motor Raceway today.

The first S5000 race car, developed and built by open wheel experts Borland Racing Developments, was put in the hands of GRM, which has taken the technical lead on the new category.

GRM, a leading force in the Supercars Championship, are awaiting the arrival of 13 new S5000 chassis where they will be in charge of the significant engineering, fabrication and composite construction required to get Australia’s fastest motorsport category on track.

Since the launch in late November, the first S5000 car has been seen at a number of demonstration events, with today’s Winton track activity marking its first full-on test.

Former national driving champion and regular test driver Tim Macrow drove the car around the 3.0km rural circuit.

The test has focussed on the new production components that will be utilised to build the first batch of cars.

Interest in purchasing and/or leasing the S5000 vehicles has been extremely high, with category organisers the Australian Racing Group confident of big fields for the inaugural six round championship next year.

The Australian S5000 Championship will be one of the feature categories on the Shannons Nationals calendar next year. The first event is slated for Sydney Motorsport Park on May 17-19.

Barry Rogers
Garry Rogers Motorsport

“Today was all about an official hand over from Borland Racing Developments, and it has been a seamless transition,” said Barry Rogers. 

“Mike Borland brought the car up here to Winton and we are taking it back to our race shop in Dandenong.

“Moving forward, Michael will stay involved in the project. His experience and what he has done is quite incredible, and with our big workforce at GRM, we will be able to take the production of the components for the 14 cars to the next level.

“The motivation behind the test was for a smooth hand over, and that’s how it all played out. Tim Macrow completed enough laps to give our engineers an idea of what we need to know and what these cars require.

“Since announcing our technical lead on the category two weeks ago, a lot has happened already. We’ve had a number of phone hook-ups with chassis builder Onroak, and the first four tubs are not far away from being sea freighted. 

“We have the jigs, drawings and all the facility to make the fabricated parts. It’s a big project to coordinate with all of the various inputs, but one we’re really looking forward to.”

Chris Lambden
Category Manager, S5000

“This is the first real test day we’ve been able to schedule since the launch of the car, so its both a great opportunity to do some basic set-up work on the car, some durability running, as well as introducing it to the engineering guys at GRM,” said Chris Lambden.

“They’re going to busy people at GRM as the construction of the first cars comes together, and this is a great day for them to get a full understanding of the car.”