Australian S5000 Championship


The Australian S5000 Championship is a current open-wheel racing series in Australia. The series was created by a merger between two previous series, Formula Thunder 5000 and Super5000 The series is also promoted by the Australian Racing Group.
The inaugural race of the series was originally set to be in Sydney Motorsport Park in May 2019, but was delayed to September due to supply issues from the United States.

Series overview

The original concept of having a modern interpretation of the Formula 5000 format was first thought of in 2016, and was initially called the Formula Thunder 5000. The original car used a Swift FN09 chassis that raced in Super Formula between 2009 and 2013.
A year later in 2017, the Super5000 series was later created by former Supercars CEO James Warburton, as part of his plan to sustain growth of motorsport in Australia. The series would originally be used as a support category for the Supercars series, alongside the Super2 and SuperUtes series. The creation of this series led to controversy, and the founder of Formula Thunder 5000, Chris Lambden, disapproved of the idea, claiming it would threaten his own plans.
Later that same year, both series announced a merger in a bid to further ensure the return of a formula racing series in Australia. The formation of the S5000 series came as a result, and would incorporate technical elements from both the Formula Thunder 5000 and the Super5000 series.

Car specification

The S5000 car's chassis is based on a FIA-compliant Formula 3 bespoke chassis manufactured by French motorsport company Onroak-Ligier. The car uses a 5.0-litre naturally-aspirated quad-cam Ford Coyote V8 that is modified by InnoV8, and has an output of and of torque. All of the power is driven by a 6-speed gearbox by Holinger. Holinger also supplies the transaxle. The suspension set and the wing package are supplied by Borland Racing Developments, and are then fabricated by Garry Rogers Motorsport, who also perform the assembly of the S5000 car. The tyres are supplied by Hoosier.
The S5000 car has been certified by the FIA under the 2018 safety certification.
The S5000 car made its first public appearance taking part in demonstration runs at the 2018 Newcastle 500 Supercars event with drivers such as Greg Murphy, John Bowe, and Garth Tander going behind the wheel. The race car received a positive reaction from the audience.

Race schedule

A preliminary schedule was originally announced in 2018, with Sydney Motorsport Park as the season opener. However, in April 2019, the organisers announced that the series would be delayed four months and that the series would instead kick off in September 2019 at Sandown Raceway, due to supply issues from the United States. The organisers also wanted to ensure that the S5000 car would be properly tested.

Media coverage

The races are to be aired on free-to-air television on TV channel 7, and they will also be live-streamed by website Motorsport.com through their Motorsport.TV platform.