Will Davison is predicting a “brutal” Gen3 initiation when the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship begins at the Thrifty Newcastle 500.

The first practice session of the season will take place 48 days from today yet, so far, the only Gen3 cars to have turned a wheel are the homologation prototypes.

Indications now are that teams will start rolling out for testing around halfway through next month, at Winton or Queensland Raceway, before an all-in affair at Sydney Motorsport Park on February 22.

Regardless of when cars will be ready for shakedowns and/or initial testing, they will likely only see two days’ worth of running before turning up in the Hunter Valley for a pair of 250km races on the weekend of March 10-12.

The Newcastle East Street Circuit is, by its nature, a track with a high risk of carnage.

However, drivers face an even greater challenge this time around given they will be racing cars which generate about 63 percent less downforce than their predecessors do, and which will be relatively unrefined during the early events of the 2023 season.

The Shell V-Power Racing Team’s Davison, who drove the Ford Mustang prototype during this week’s running at Queensland Raceway, said, “Newcastle’s awesome; it’s a really wild circuit and certainly missed it, the last few years.

“[It is going to be a] Brutal, brutal way to kick off the championship. It’s going to be a…