What Simon McNamara’s return means for General Motors in Supercars

The rebuild of General Motors’ Supercars program is due to take a big step this weekend at Symmons Plains.

That may sound like an odd thing to say during the 2025 championship, in which a Chevrolet driver – Will Brown – leads the points, there are five Chevrolet drivers in the all-important top 10, and Triple Eight leads the teams’ standings.

All that comes after two seasons of Supercars racing under the Gen 3 regulations, and two drivers’ and teams’ titles. In two seasons and 52 Supercars races, the wins have been split Chevrolet 38, Ford 14.

The ‘rebuild’ is about the future, not the present. Next year Triple Eight, the pitlane’s alpha team, will race Ford Mustangs. Walkinshaw Andretti United, in past days a consistent winner for Holden, will change brands again, from Ford to Toyota. And the Japanese make is circling for a second team to run its GR Supra Supercars, and rumours persist that Brad Jones Racing remains a candidate for that role.

Enter – or more accurately, welcome back – Simon McNamara. The long-time Holden Motorsport and Sponsorship Manager has returned to the sport, confirming that he has taken on the role of Motorsports Supercars Racing Program Manager at General Motors.

Between 2007 and 2017 McNamara was responsible for Holden’s Supercars successes. Much of that winning was down to Triple Eight, which raced through the 2009 season without manufacturer branding after being dropped by Ford. Holden and McNamara swooped, the team swapped its Ford Falcons for Holden Commodores, and the rest is history: eight drivers’ titles and 10 teams’ championships.

But when GM shuttered its Holden brand, McNamara, a 22-year veteran of the company, departed. Triple Eight and fellow Chevrolet team Erebus Motorsport kept the winning streak alive, but there were stirrings at both Ford and Toyota.

Almost exactly three years before McNamara’s return, Ford recruited Ben Nightingale to its communications team. With a long history in the pitlane, including stints with Supercars itself and DJR Team Penske, it was not long before motorsport in general and Supercars in particular were added to his CV.

Even though his role and McNamara’s are not identical, it was on Nightingale’s watch that Ford poached Triple Eight away to not only race Mustangs but be its homologation team, a role it has successfully filled for GM.

That move creates the somewhat odd situation whereby, unless something unforeseen happens, the only two Supercars champions racing under the Chevrolet banner in 2026 will be Scott McLaughlin in IndyCar and Shane Van Gisbergen in NASCAR.

If BJR defects to Toyota, it also means that the 14-10 numerical advantage Chevrolet enjoys over Ford will evaporate, with 10 Mustangs, eight Camaros and six Supras on the grid.

From the outside it looks like high on McNamara’s to-do list will be to circle the wagons and ensure the remaining Chevrolet teams receive the technical and financial support they require to be competitive. But in light of the incoming changes on the grid for 2026, it could well be a rocky road for Chevrolet fans for at least a couple of seasons.

For the medium to long-term however, the news looks much brighter. The return of the no-nonsense McNamara would not have happened without a clear picture of what GM plans to do in Supercars in the medium to long-term. While Audi’s nascent Formula 1 program has seen some of its other racing programs shrink or disappear altogether, GM’s Cadillac F1 program does not appear to be a factor in compromising Supercars future – in fact, just the opposite.

Clearly, whether what comes next from GM involves a new model Camaro, Cadillac or something else for what would likely be Supercars’ Gen 4, McNamara is sure to play a big role in what that will look like.