Triple Eight wildcard for Darwin Supercars

The powerhouse squad confirmed earlier this year that its Supercheap Auto-backed wildcard programme will continue for a third straight year.

Craig Lowndes and Zane Goddard were locked in as drivers, however exact details of the programme have, to this point, been withheld.

It has now been confirmed that the third T8 Camaro will make three appearances across the remainder of the season.

The first of those outings will be a solo effort for Goddard at next month's Darwin Triple Crown, marking the first single-driver appearance for the T8 wildcard.

It will also be the first wildcard of the Gen3 era and Goddard's return to Supercars since a difficult Bathurst campaign last October.

Additionally, T8 has announced that Wes McDougal will return to the team to engineer the #888 entry for its three outings.

McDougal oversaw Jamie Whincup's entry for his final full-time Supercars season before parting ways with the team at the end of that year.

“It’s also a great opportunity for me to have a standalone wildcard entry in Darwin and get some laps under my belt before the enduro season, and I can’t thank Supercheap Auto and Triple Eight enough," said Goddard.

"I’ve obviously raced fulltime before, but to also have a chance in the car to show what I can do is really cool. Darwin is always an amazing event, so I’m going to embrace the whole race meeting and hopefully we can get some good results.

"The guys and girls at Triple Eight have been putting in a lot of work behind the scenes to get the car ready, so hopefully we can repay them with a good result and take as much away from it as we can."

Lowndes welcomed the plan to give Goddard additional miles ahead of the Sandown and Bathurst long-distance races.

“It’s fantastic that Zane will be racing in Darwin, and I congratulate Supercheap Auto and Triple Eight for making that happen," he said.

"Any laps in these new cars are invaluable, and hopefully he gets more comfortable with the car and the team before enduro season really kicks off later in the year.

"As I’ve mentioned before, Zane’s a fantastic young kid with great speed and a great head on his shoulders, and his return to the main game is truly deserved.

“Now that we’ve launched our Supercheap Auto wildcard, my focus is to work closely with Zane at our upcoming test days, ensuring we’re both comfortable in the car, and familiarising ourselves with our team of engineers and mechanics. Sandown can’t come quick enough!”