When COVID-19 allowed the categories out to play, some of my highlights of the 2021 season were the Motorsport Australia Championships, plus the standalone Australian Racing Group (ARG) events. They featured a great mix of categories that turned on some top-notch entertainment.

The TV product was just ace, and there was indeed something for everyone, no matter your taste in motorised sport.

To be honest, it was probably the best second-string national touring series Australian motorsport has ever seen – it was a product you would happily pay money to go and watch.

The olden days of Super Touring, PROCAR or V8 Lites never had the depth of quality outside the main show, nor the quality of the live pictures beamed around the world.

With the ARG’s SpeedSeries TV package moving over to Stan, and the Supercars Media folk pushing the buttons in the background, the quality and quantity of the telecast should step up another notch in 2022.

I was definitely holding out on Stan, with its offering of Indycar, WEC, WRC and more, but having the SpeedSeries on board is enough to make me commit. There’s some decent value there, plus the wife gets her movies and TV shows. Done.

Tasmania is typically a hard sell for competitors, but this weekend’s event on the Apple Isle has drawn some tasty fields out of the woodwork, especially so following such a short offseason.

Now, I have friends at Motorsport Australia and the ARG to whom I could pitch my idea directly, but bugger it, they can find out about it with the rest of TRT’s readers.

Let’s crown the ultimate champion of champions for season 2022.

How It Works

In a former life, I spent the better part of a decade as the secretary of the Queensland Racing Drivers Association, a car club for competitors from all walks of local and national motorsport.

With a focus on the state championship side of things, each year, the association presents a Club Champion, essentially the driver from all categories who performed the best throughout the season.

The concept is simple – a standardised point score was applied for all classes, divided by the number of eligible races contested throughout the year at championship events, arriving at an average result, which is, in essence, is relative to all of the drivers across all classes.

It works a treat – one year a Sports Sedan driver would pick up the top gong, the next a Gemini punter or someone in Formula Vee – and for the winners, it was a real feather in their cap.

For whoever picks up the concept, either Motorsport Australia or the ARG, it’s a simple case of setting up another spreadsheet – I’ve seen categories hotwire in their websites to scrape results directly from Natsoft, automatically updating when a race’s result sheet is uploaded.

Bang, there it is, a new stream of content for the news sites and social media.

The winner gets a nice trophy at the end of the year and the knowledge that they are the best of the best out of a wide selection of categories.

Who would be the best overall performer between S5000, TCR, TCM, Trans Am, GTs, Porsches and more?

I’d be keen to find out…

Much to Look Forward to

Clearly, COVID times have taken their toll on the semi-pro side of the sport, mainly via the various border closures that have split the nation over the past two years.

While the Supercars circus and its full-time staff could hit the road, jump borders, work remotely and quarantine in multiple instances to keep the business and its valuable TV income going, the hurdles for other categories were basically insurmountable.

Many are crewed by weekend-only staff, while the bulk of competitors have day jobs that need to be attended to.

And that’s completely understandable.

Fingers crossed, all being well in the world, east coast border closures and lockdowns will be a thing of the past, and everything below Supercars will get an entire program in the books.

And that is an exciting prospect.

Where do you start?

S5000 is a gamechanger. These are proper big boy racing machines – they sound great, look fast, and have an in your face presence.

F5000 cars will forever be cool, but the safety provided by a full carbon fibre car-of-today gives the drivers the confidence they need to have a proper go.

The first time I saw them in the flesh at Phillip Island last year, I had immediate throwbacks to the early 1990s and the streets of Surfers Paradise. Squint, and they’re an Indycar.

It will be interesting to see how this category evolves with the circuits of Australia – the cars have been designed to be challenging to drive, which adds to the inherent action, especially with some highly competent drivers behind the wheel.

TCR is TCR. While initial calls from some quarters were that it is the future of touring car racing, the Australian iteration has found its own niche in the motorsport landscape, with it being a solid destination in its own right.

With some big-name drivers being beaten by upstarts, there’s a lot to like about the competition when it gets feisty.

One of the highlights of last year’s mega Bathurst festival for mine was watching these cars blast through McPhillamy Park in qualifying – from the outside, at least, it looked properly sketchy.

Watching cars that are uncomfortable to drive is what you want to see.

Along similar lines, what about Trans Ams? They wallow and slide around any corner on their big baggy tyres, which is very cool to watch.

I’m glad Supercars Gen3 isn’t Trans Ams; these things have their own place in the pecking order – it’s not super-premium, it’s just a bucketload of fun.

Also, more often than not, the racing last year at the front of the field was absolutely top-notch, too.

Touring Car Masters continues to be a fan favourite with very good reason, while the GT World Challenge Australia had some spirited races last year, especially when the hired gun drivers were mixing it up.

Suppose Motorsport Australia were to pick up the concept. In that case, you can throw the Porsche Sprint Challenge Australia into the mix, a class that has developed to be a top proving ground and fiercely competitive in its own right.

You would also have the possibility to add the Radical Australia Cup, Australian Production Cars and more into calculations.

By and large, the motorsport fans of Australia have been robbed of a good portion of quality racing over the past two years.

Please let it change in 2022. And while we are there, get one more cup ordered from the trophy shop.