After 16 years the popular V8 Ute racing category will run its final race at Sydney Olympic Park this November. In 2017 it will make way for SuperUtes, a new SUV-based category running under the Supercars Australia banner.

The new Ute racing category will be based around production SUVs modified for competition. Supercars Australia managing director Matt Braid said the new SuperUtes would be open to all SUV manufacturers.

“V8 Utes has been a popular and entertaining category but with the changing automotive market it’s important that the Utes series becomes more market relevant,” he said.

“Utilising production-based turbo-diesel dual cab utes currently available for sale in the Australian market, SuperUtes will open the category to a variety of new manufacturers while still maintaining the spectacular and entertaining elements that make the category such a favourite with the fans.”

The announcement follows Supercars Australia’s move to take over the V8 Utes category from previous category owner/manager earlier this year.

The new production-based SUV formula is a significant change in direction from the previous category management’s earlier proposal to shift to a one-size-fits-all V8 Supercars style control chassis with SUV bodies and V8 engines. This concept met with some resistance from V8 Ute competitors, the lack of consensus over the future direction contributing to the category’s implosion at the end of 2015.

Supercars Australia says it is working with the existing V8 Ute competitors to help them make the switch to the new category as well as opening the door to new entrants.

To allow time for the transition, the first race next year won't be until July, at the Townsville Supercars event. Following that will be rounds at Ipswich, Bathurst, Surfers Paradise and Newcastle. Supercars anticipates further expansion is planned in 2018.

The V8 Utes category was conceived in 2001 as a kind of irreverent crowd-pleasing warmup act but soon evolved into a well-run support category with solid commercial backing.

However, the end of local car manufacturing this year imposed a finite time limit on the original V8 Ute racing concept – at least in terms of it retaining commercial relevance.

Supercars’ new SuperUtes concept is designed to address that problem while also opening the doors to the potential for a range of different manufacturers to go racing with what are mostly high-volume selling models.

Interestingly, Supercars has opted to retain the ‘Ute’ tag in the new category’s title at a time when the SUV manufacturers are dropping it from their marketing programmes in favour of the word ‘Truck’.