The Tyrepower V8 SuperUte Series has welcomed a revamped management team and shareholding group ahead of the 2025 season-opener this week at Sydney Motorsport Park (February 21-23).
After a 12-month-long process to restructure the series, the new shareholding group sees 16 team owners collectively own majority share in V8 SuperUte Series Pty Ltd, the entity which oversees the management of the series.
Those shareholders are Luke Sieders, Adrian Cottrell, Craig Dontas, Jensen Engelhardt, Holly Espray, Chris Formosa, Gerard Maggs, Clayton Mortensen, Jason Norris, Amar Sharma, Michael Sherwell, Scott Stephenson, Scott Taylor, Craig Thompson, Jimmy Vernon and Luke Webber.
Additionally, as ratified at an AGM on Monday, key management personnel were officially appointed including series operations manager Filippa Guarna stepping up as Category Manager, and The Bend Motorsport Park’s head of operations Wayne Williams joining as Technical Manager, taking over from series promoter Luke Sieders who moves to a Board Director role.
Under the new structure, each V8 SuperUte will be tied to a shareholding license in order to compete in the series, which this year boasts six rounds nationwide as a full-time support category to the Repco Supercars Championship.
Sieders, who has been category manager since the end of 2019 (during the changeover from diesel to V8-powered race cars) said the new leadership team and ownership group heralds a new era of investment and growth for the fan-favourite category.
“I’m very proud of how far we’ve come as a series after myself, team owner Craig Thompson and other founding members of our paddock had a vision way back when on what we wanted V8 SuperUtes to become, and now we’re here,” said Sieders.
“I’m excited to hand over the category management reigns to Filippa [Guarna] after all she’s done to help me with the series the last few years, and Wayne [Williams] stepping into the technical management role with his long involvement in team and circuit administration, to help steer the category into an exciting new growth phase in Australian motorsport.”
Guarna, a 26-year motorsport veteran, and who has been a force behind the category’s re-organisation and growth since joining mid-2022 as operations and communications manager, said the restructure is just another exciting step in the growth of the series long-term.
“We wouldn’t be here today without the leadership of Luke [Sieders] and the commitment of our teams and competitors, but the hard work has paid off to reach this series milestone and I’m grateful for being trusted with leading the paddock in 2025,” said Guarna. “Everyone has stepped up these last few seasons in particular to lay solid foundations for growth that we can be proud of, and together with our new shareholding group there is endless opportunity ahead to make the series a standout.”
Williams, who is operations and venue manager at The Bend Motorsport Park, South Australia, and a former founding team owner in the V8 Ute Racing Series, says he can’t wait to officially join the category at round one this week and be part of the series’ evolution.
“I think the V8 SuperUtes is a great category and everyone has been so welcoming; I even raced in the first inception of the V8-era at The Bend back in 2021,” said Williams. “Being a racer, a technical person and an administrator in the sport, I hope to take some pressure off Luke [Sieders] and work with our team for the long-term to help the series evolve and succeed as a whole.”
Former owner of Haltech, Mark Bevan – who was a large contributor in the early development of the V8 SuperUtes platform – was also appointed at the AGM as the second Board Director alongside Sieders.
“V8 SuperUtes would not be here today without all the support Mark [Bevan] gave us during that transition phase from diesel to V8s, both as a series partner and in supplying his Haltech engineers to help with our control ECU and wiring packages. I’m thrilled he’s been appointed to the board in 2025,” added Sieders.
Stephen “Whitedog” White returns in 2025 as series Driver Standards Advisor (DSA), and Murray Slana the Motorsport Australia-appointed Technical Delegate.
Round 1 of the Tyrepower V8 SuperUte Series at Sydney Motorsport Park commences this Friday morning February 21. Event and ticket information for the 2025 Tyrepower V8 SuperUte Series rounds are available via the official Repco Supercars Championship website here.
2025 TYREPOWER V8 SUPERUTE SERIES CALENDAR
Round 1: Sydney Motorsport Park, Sydney (NSW) from February 21-23
Round 2: Symmons Plains Raceway, Launceston (TAS) from May 9-11
Round 3: CARCO.com.au Raceway, Perth (WA) from June 6-8
Round 4: Reid Park Circuit, Townsville (QLD) from July 11-13
Round 5: Repco Bathurst 1000, Mount Panorama (NSW) from October 9-12
Round 6: Penrite Oil Sandown 500, Melbourne (VIC) from November 14-16