In 1993, Gardner was recruited to drive a VP Commodore for the Holden Racing Team in the 1993 Australian Touring Car Championship, the first year of the 5.0 litre touring cars which later became the V8 Supercars. In November 1993, Gardner won one of the Group A support races at the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, after earlier in the year finishing third Tooheys 1000 co-driving with Brad Jones. Many incidents while driving for the Holden Racing Team in 1993 led to him being given the nickname "Captain Chaos", and it was thought that his continued on-track clashes was what had led to his brief suspension from the team for that year's Sandown 500, though the real reason was that Gardner had been openly talking to both Holden and Coca-Cola about starting his own team. For the 1994 season, Gardner formed his own team, Wayne Gardner Racing (sponsored by Coca-Cola), where he raced for three seasons with teammate, Channel 7 commentator Neil Crompton. The team's low point came at the Bathurst round of the 1995 ATCC in March. Soon after the start of the first heat, Crompton was hit by the VP Commodore of Phil Ward. This pushed him straight into Gardner's car and both of the Coke sponsored cars ended their race in the wall before they got to Hell Corner on the first lap (Ward continued on with little to no damage). The team recovered though and Gardner sensationally won the start and led the opening laps of the 1995 Tooheys 1000, before he and Crompton went on to finish 3rd in the race, while their teammates Brad Jones and former Bathurst winner Win Percy finished 5th, only a few seconds behind. Gardner's ATCC highlight was winning the 1997 Calder Park round, held under lights at Calder Park Raceway. Following the withdrawal of their major sponsor Coca-Cola who chose instead to invest in the upcoming Sydney Olympics in 2000, thus losing a rumoured $2 million a year in sponsorship which made it basically impossible for the team to function financially, the team folded after a partial 1999 season with a leased car from Perkins Engineering, but he continued racing V8 Supercars until 2002, with the highlight of taking pole position for the FAI 1000 at Bathurst in 2000, in appalling conditions. Wayne Gardner also took a surprise win in the first round in the V8 Supercar Championship's inaugural season in 1997, at Calder Park Raceway. It was surprising, as Gardner had announced that due to a lack of available funds, it was unlikely that he would race the full 1997 season, and he wasn't considered a race or championship favourite.