Australian GT Cup preview

New cars, teams and drivers will compete in the Century Batteries-backed national championship.

The season opener at the 4.5km circuit will feature a 1-hour showroom shootout on Sunday, with two 12-lap races on Saturday.

Series organiser ProCar Australia chief executive Ross Palmer said: "This is a category for cars that can be bought off the showroom floor, so it's very easy for racing fans to identify with when they see it on the track or on television.

"The new classes create highly relevant groupings, such as V8 and six-cylinder family cars, and preserve the purity of production racing at an affordable level."

Teams will be joined for the three non-championship events by competitors from the newly-created Century Batteries GTP Nation's Cup series, also making their first appearance.

With last year's fastest supercars now in their own Nations Cup series, five new classes have been designed to allow a fresh squad of competitors to fight for outright victory.

The classes are: Autobarn High Performance, Hippies Sports Touring, Pennzoil V8 Touring, Pennzoil Six-cylinder Touring and Poolrite Four-cylinder Touring.