When COVID-19 restrictions turned the 2020 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship upside down and forced teams to live on the road, Erebus Motorsport turned to Mount Gambier.

The popular team also labeled Boost Mobile Racing setup their two cars inside the Carlin and Gazzard workshop for a month during a doubleheader at Tailem Bend and the lead up to that year’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

Next year the Supercars world enters a new era with teams racing new, tough and exciting looking Gen3 Chevrolet Camaros and Ford Mustangs.

The introduction of the new formula has been delayed due to many byproducts of COVID-19, but will finally spring into action next year.

While the start date is set in stone, teams who are still in the middle of the current championship are in a race against time to hit the grid with the new cars in March next year.

What has not helped the cause is the fact Supercars is still finalising the finishing touches on the cars with front end tests taking place last week at Sandown.

However, this has not stopped Erebus from cracking on and being one of the first teams to get the majority of its first chassis out the way.

To achieve this, Boost Mobile Racing has once again turned to Mount Gambier where fabricator James White has been assembling the historic and rarely seen Gen3 chassis inside his workshop.

Last Thursday Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan came to the Blue Lake city and was thrilled to see the rear clip and centre section already completed.

With the front clip of the chassis still being finalised he said this was a major milestone and relief because the squad has completed as much as possible despite the interrupted process.

“It has been a long journey so far and there is still a long way to go before we turn the first laps in the car early next year,” Ryan said when speaking with The SE Voice at White’s workshop last week.

“James has done a brilliant job as usual getting this done in pretty much three weeks and we have left no stone unturned making it the way we want to build it.

“A lot of other teams are buying it off a manufacturer, but doing it this way means we can control everything better.”

Despite seeing the first chassis nearly completed, there is still plenty of work to be done to ensure both Erebus drivers Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki can line up on the grid at Newcastle in their respective #9 and #99 Camaros.

Ryan revealed a second chassis was expected to be completed before Christmas, while a third spare chassis is also in the works.

“It has been good (so far) but we still have not got anything for the second chassis yet,” he said.

“Hopefully that is going to be in the next month or so.”

The incoming introduction of Gen3 has generated much excitement not only up and down the Supercars pit lane, but across the entire motorsport world.

Ryan said he hoped the new regulations would re-energise the sport with the new cars staying true to the Supercars soul.

“The same as NASCAR this year, we just need a reset,” he said.

“All the history goes out the window with the setups which is probably where we have struggled over the last few years.

“So resetting is going to be good with less adjustability in the cars, but still enough to make the good teams good.

“The cars seem pretty good to drive, Will Brown did a 30 lap run at Sandown the other day and said it was really good and feels like a Supercar.

“The most important thing is that it does not feel foreign like a GT car and feels like a Supercar, which is its own beast.

“We will have to work harder than ever to be at the front.”

In the current Repco Supercars Championship season, Boost Mobile Racing hopes for a big finish.

Last year the squad fielded two rookies and Brown and Kostecki both exceeded expectations claiming top 10 championship finishes with a win for car 9 at Sydney Motorsport Park and a podium for car 99 at Bathurst highlights.

Despite a slightly up-and-down 2022 season, Erebus has hit its straps recently with Kostecki being a regular finisher around the top 10 to sit 8th.

Brown has battled to find the same consistency suffering a tough start to the season and currently sits 13th in the standings, but showed positive signs at the latest round in Sandown where he scored his first podium of the year.

With a farewell to Pukekohe, the annual Great Race at Bathurst and anticipated returns to the streets of Gold Coast and Adelaide to come, there are some big trophies to be won before the end of the season and Erebus is hitting form at the right time.

With Boost Mobile Racing currently sitting sixth in the teams championship, Ryan hopes a big finish to the year can lift his squad above Grove Racing and into the top five with most of the focus on Mount Panorama.

“We have been on the podium for two weekends in a row now and it is the right time of the year to get some momentum with Bathurst coming up,” he said.

“If there is only one race you are good at all year it has to be Bathurst so we are always focused on that.

“We will be back on the hard tyre in New Zealand which is the same as Bathurst so hopefully we can start building some momentum for the Great Race.

“We are still trying to get fifth or fourth in the teams championship.

“We are close, there is one team we need to knock off and we are pretty confident we can.

“Being in the same spot in the pit lane next year is important to us.”

But before Supercars heads across the ditch, Ryan was simply happy to be back in Mount Gambier and said the man who used to race motorbikes at McNamara Park still feels plenty of support from the Limestone Coast.

“It is great to be back in Mont Gambier again because it has become our second little family in the COVID period when we were here for four weeks,” he said.

“Peter at Carlin and Gazzard was amazing when we were here to keep us sane and he still supports us where he can.

“Marcus Stewart from Max Medhurst also paints our chassis, so we have a great relationship here and hopefully it continues.

“It is a great little town and we would love to see a race track here.”