There has been a move to increase wildcard entries in recent years, which includes the successful launch of the Super2 wildcard program in 2017. This initiative saw several Super2 competitors join the Supercars grid at selected events including Winton, Darwin, Queensland Raceway and The Bend Motorsport Park.

The field will shrink from 26 to 24 cars after Triple Eight and Tickford handed back Racing Entitlements Contracts at the end of the current season. Supercars chief executive officer Sean Seamer is excited for the future of the program and the series.

“We’ve got 24 brilliant cars, we’ve also got a great wildcard program,” said Seamer.

“We’ll expand the opportunity for wildcards, which I think is fantastic, for Super2 or anybody that may be interested in driving.

“There’s not many fields around the world operating at a calibre that ours are, only separated by tenths, so a [24 car grids] won’t have any impact on the show.”

Teams have always had the opportunity to enter the Bathurst 1000, however financial circumstances and sponsorship often limit the opportunities to enter.

Seamer stated that having access to newer, more competitive machinery such as the ZB Commodore and more vacant garages will allow more wildcards to enter the series next year. 

“We’ve got to keep in mind that one of the biggest challenges that we have around wildcards is having current vehicles,” said Seamer.

“Obviously this year you had the ZB, so you needed a new car if you wanted to run a Holden, and next year we’ve got the Mustang, so that’s a challenge, making sure you’ve got the current platform to be competitive.

“The second thing is, operationally down to garage space, making sure you’ve got the engineers and the crews to do it.

“With a bit more garage space that alleviates that issue. There are a few more ZBs available now than there were at the start of last year.

“We’ll continue to make it as easy as possible for someone to run a wildcard, but ultimately it comes down to the team and the model they put around it.”

The last wildcard at the Bathurst 1000 came in 2016 with the Harvey Norman Supergirls entry of Simona De Silvestro and Renee Gracie.

Both 23Red Racing and Erebus Motorsport have reported an interest in entering wildcard entries next season. 23Red Racing has a spare Mustang while Erebus still has their 2015 Mercedes AMG which Luke Youlden tested earlier this month.