Team TRTPOWER RANKINGS 2022: Supercars
A month removed from Adelaide, it’s easy to forget that outside of SVG’s domination, it was a cracking good season from the Supercars circus, with ample HOT & NOT fodder for these pages.
As per our end-of-year SpeedSeries wrap, via the Power Rankings throughout the year, the best bits of each Supercars round were listed – for this review, with have scored the various rankings on a scale of 10 points to 1.
While this is hardly scientific, we are once again satisfied that it has provided a very solid guide to the top performers of season 2022.
So here it is, the ultimate Power Rankings wrap for the final season of this Supercars generation – and thanks to you, TRT’s community for contributing to this project throughout the year, it is only a continued feature due to your ongoing input and feedback.
Cheers, and bring on 2023…
HOT
1. Shane van Gisbergen
Good, better, best. Where will it stop?
After demolishing the field last year, the defending champ embarrassed all and sundry this time around.
With a total of 21 wins for the season, for the most part, SVG was playing with his food.
This was despite off-season team management and engineering changes within the Red Bull Ampol equipe, coupled with the distraction of spearheading the Chevrolet Gen3 program, car 97 once again proved to be the best car from the best team with a superior driver.
Scoring nearly double the points of second place in the final Power Rankings tally, the champ picked up HOT nominations at every event bar Darwin, and topped the charts on five occasions.
2. The Racing
While more often than not, SVG was disappearing into the distance, when the field was around him, the action was red hot, while behind the leaders, the battles for Class B honours were spicy.
The racing in the wet at The Bend topped the charts from that event, ditto the last lap shenanigans between SVG and Anton De Pasquale in Townsville, Pukekohe’s fight to the death between SVG and Waters was mighty, while various battles were cited from Adelaide, Darwin, Barbagallo, Sandown, Winton and Symmons Plains.
3. Cam Waters
Second in the final standings translated to third in the overall Power Rankings for 2022 for the Monster Mustang pilot.
After breaking through at the fifth event, Waters was typically in the podium conversation at circuits such as Hidden Valley, Townsville, The Bend and Bathurst.
Waters scored big in the Rankings at Winton, where he dominated, and at Pukekohe, where he was involved in the epic scrap with SVG.
4. Chaz Mostert
When Chaz was hot, he was red HOT, with big-time nominations picked up from the Sydney Motorsport Park opener, Darwin, the AGP, The Bend, Bathurst, the Gold Coast and Adelaide.
Third in the final season standings was achieved with victories at SMP, Albert Park, and Hidden Valley, with a hot streak of end-of-season podiums capped with a famous win on the Saturday in Adelaide.
The season showed more continued improvement from Chaz’s side of the Walkinshaw Andretti United garage, which is a good thing for the sport.
5. Will Davison
After getting hosed in qualifying last year by teammate Anton De Pasquale, Will Davison absolutely stepped up to the plate in 2022, equalling his PB for most poles in a season with nine.
On race day, a long-awaited breakthrough win at Barbagallo was an emotional one.
Davison picked up significant kudos from the visit west, Sandown and Pukekohe, where he was victorious.
6. TV Things
Once again, the Supercars TV product proved to be elite, the equal of anything from around the world.
With continual improvement and innovation, the 13 TV productions were a regular feature of the Rankings.
Larko continues to be a national treasure, while Garth Tander has well and truly locked himself in for a long-term career behind the mic.
=7. Supports
The undercard on the Supercars program continued to shine throughout the season.
For instance, the latest generation of the Porsche Carrera Cup was red hot, with both the Pro and the Am titles going right down to the wire.
When Super2 didn’t feature in the Rankings on its own, it definitely contributed alongside classes such as the Toyota 86s, Touring Car Masters, S5000s, GTs, Superutes, and the Aussie Racing Cars, amongst others, with a special mention going to the Australian Superbike Championship when it joined the party at Hidden Valley.
=7. David Reynolds
At various times during the season, the standalone Grove Racing squad looked like genuine contenders, with David Reynolds racing like the David Reynolds of old.
The Penrite-backed ace scored strong nominations from Winton, Tasmania, the Gold Coast and the AGP.
Like Mostert, an on-form Reynolds is a good thing for the sport, as witnessed by his mega pole lap in Surfers Paradise.
9. Broc Feeney
Obviously, victory in the season finale on the streets of Adelaide was huge for the rookie of the year.
The final race for Holden, with the success mirroring many of the feats achieved by the driver he replaced, Jamie Whincup.
Big shoes to fill, but by the end of the season he looked comfy, with a refreshingly bubbly persona to back it up.
Other podiums in Tasmania and Sandown were highlights, but overall, his consistency was solid compared to many, and he played a significant role in the Red Bull Ampol crew retaining the team’s title.
For his maiden campaign, big Rankings points were registered from both Symmons Plains and Adelaide.
10. Shell V-Power Racing
After six wins last year, four successes this year was a step back for the Queensland squad, although some big off-track management and ownership shifts make the future of DJR an interesting one.
Faced with the SVG domination of proceedings, the team were in the Team’s title conversation deep into the year, before ultimately settling for second, which remains an admirable result.
The mid-year run between Townsville and Darwin for both of the team cars helped their point score.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
- Walkinshaw Andretti United, especially for some swift repair work and engine transplants during the season, capped by a memorable 1-2 in Adelaide
- The Adelaide 500, the phoenix rose in an amazing turnaround – utterly brilliant
- Holden, especially for its efforts in Adelaide and on The Mountain
- The Bathurst 1000
- Andre Heimgartner, consistent in his first year at BJR, picking up nominations at four events
- Todd Hazelwood, with a strong start to the year
- Super2, when things weren’t going full Super2
- Darwin, and the inaugural Indigenous Round
- Albert Park, and a return of the F1 circus Downunder
