2024 Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 Official Program by V8 Sleuth

PUBLISHER:

Shane Howard Chief Executive Officer, Supercars

Welcome from Supercars

Welcome to the 2024 Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500, Queensland’s biggest annual sporting event and one of the highlights of the Supercars calendar.

We are thrilled to be back racing on the world-famous streets of Surfers Paradise and are very proud to have recently secured a three-year extension, ensuring we’ll continue to compete on this iconic circuit for years to come.

This year promises to be bigger and better than ever, with an exciting mix of entertainment both on and off the track. We’re proud to showcase some of Australia’s best live music acts, including Jet, Peking Duk, Spiderbait, Bag Raiders, Kingswood, and DJ Total Eclipse. Their performances will help create a festival atmosphere to match the thrilling racing action.

Peter Adderton Founder, Boost Mobile

For the first time ever, we’re delivering twilight drift racing at the event. Featuring some of the world’s top drift drivers, this will be a show like no other, adding even more excitement to an already actionpacked weekend.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the incredible support of our sponsors, partners, and volunteers. A special thank you to Repco, Boost Mobile, and all our series sponsors—many of whom have been with us since we first raced on the Gold Coast 30 years ago. Your commitment to Supercars has been instrumental in our continued success.

With only four drivers left in championship contention, anything can happen on track. We can’t wait to see who comes out on top at this year’s Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500. Enjoy the weekend.

Welcome from Boost Mobile

On behalf of the entire team at Boost Mobile welcome to the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.

The Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 is a perfect brand fit for Boost Mobile, which brings together a fantastic street circuit, great fans, and good times on the backdrop of the idyllic beaches of the Gold Coast.

The Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 is all about having fun. Families, kids, keen motorsports fans, fans who have never been to a motorsport event, partygoers, YouTubers, TikTokers you name it, everyone is welcome.

At Boost Mobile we are all about the fans; how can Boost Mobile make their experience better.

On top of an already action-packed Supercars weekend, Boost has added extra

entertainment this year to provide more value for the fans attending the event: The Boost Mobile Pro Drift Slam, The Boost Mobile JetPack and the Boost Mobile Club 500, making sure the music and good times are flowing all weekend.

I want to thank all the fans, drivers, teams, volunteers, Supercars and the entire team at Boost Mobile for helping bring the action back to the Gold Coast this October.

I want to also thank all our Boost Mobile customers and any new ones considering joining Boost; without you we are nothing. The team at Boost Mobile are dedicated to providing you with the best quality products, providing great value on the full Telstra mobile network.

Thank you and see you on the Gold Coast.

Patricia O’Callaghan Chief Executive Officer, Tourism and Events Queensland

Wayne Bryant Chief Executive Officer Automotive Division, GPC Asia Pacific

Welcome from Tourism and Events Queensland

I am thrilled to welcome you to the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 in Gold Coast Region.

The Gold Coast Region is known for its beautiful beaches, magnificent hiking trails and incredible culinary scene, making it the perfect destination to hold this event.

The Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 will significantly benefit the local community, the businesses within it and the future success of our state.

The Queensland Government is proud to

support the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 through Tourism and Events Queensland’s Major Event funding.

Queensland’s growing events calendar highlights our state’s reputation as a destination for great entertainment and unique visitor experiences.

If you are visiting for the event, I hope you’ll make the most of your time here and get out to experience all the wonderful things that Gold Coast has to offer.

Welcome from the City of Gold Coast

Welcome to the hottest street circuit in the southern hemisphere – and the biggest party on the Repco Supercars Championship calendar. It’s Supercars time on the Gold Coast, one of the premier events on our annual calendar. As Mayor, I welcome the teams, sponsors, officials and 200,000-plus race fans to the coast.

Organisers have again created a three-day festival that appeals to families as well as diehard V8 enthusiasts. On-site activities include race day experiences, merchandise stalls and the chance to meet the V8 stars up close.

This year will see the addition of a twilight drift event, adding to the on-track excitement. If I knew about the drift race a

Welcome fromRepco

Repco and its crew welcome you to the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 – one of the best car races on the Repco Supercars Championship calendar.

The event was built on international history and survives on a passion for our home-grown Supercars product. And since its first event in 1991, it remains absolutely one of the great street races in the world.

This is a great time of year to be a sports fan, too. In less than a month, we’ve had the AFL and NRL Grand Finals, the Repco Bathurst 1000, and now, the good sporting times roll on to the streets of Gold Coast. In Australia, we are pretty spoiled.

But why does the Gold Coast race continue to be one of the most exciting, revered street races on world motorsport? Obviously, Supercars put on a great event, and Boost Mobile has taken it to a new level with its

little earlier, I would have entered!

Motorsport is part of the coast’s DNA and 2024 is the 28th year we have hosted Supercars, off the back of Indy Cars in 1991. We are a proud home to some of the biggest race teams and have a proven track record (excuse the pun) for delivering world-class events from Coolangatta to Coomera.

I applaud Boost Mobile for resigning on to the Gold Coast 500 as naming rights sponsor. Your support is well recognised and brings an added level of corporate appeal as well as fantastic exposure nationally and internationally. I look forward to presenting our famous surfboard trophies to the winning drivers and teams come Sunday afternoon. Let’s get it on!

edgy activations, but for me, the overarching reason is the fans and their support. From the hard-nosed motorsport lovers to the party going supporters, the fans bring a great vibe that matches the on and off-track action.

It’s the perfect mix.

On the track, the Repco Supercars Championship battle is now reaching its climax. The Red Bull Camaros are still the ones to beat, but it is certainly no guarantee. There are a number of cars in contention, so every single lap will be important to determining the 2024 champion. And every lap is a hard one at Surfers Paradise. One mistake and your race – or season – could be over.

So, let’s get stuck into it. We’ve Brought the Bathurst, now it’s time to bring the Supercars back to the Coast with the most, as another great season gears towards a fantastic finale.

Mayor Tom Tate

Mayor, City of Gold Coast

Friday 25 October

Saturday 26 October

Sunday 27 October

2024 BOOST MOBILE GOLD COAST 500

BRODIE KOSTECKI

Erebus Motorsport

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

AGE 26

FROM Perth, WA

LIVES Gold Coast, QLD

@brodiekostecki57 INSTAGRAM @brodiekostecki

CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

2019

Brodie Kostecki capped a rollercoaster reign as Repco Supercars Champion by claiming an emphatic victory in the Repco Bathurst 1000 earlier this month. Only the 19th driver in history to do both and doing so in just his fourth full-time Supercars season, Kostecki’s journey is as far as you can get from an overnight success story.

After racing karts in Australia, Kostecki and his family moved to America where he cut his teeth in the uncompromising world of Late Model stock car racing on short ovals, winning at the famous Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina at age 15 against future NASCAR stars Ty Dillon and Bubba Wallace. Kostecki went on to compete in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series and across 14 races he secured two poles, one track record and one top five finish.

He returned home and in 2017 debuted in the Dunlop Super2 Series in an older generation FG Falcon run by Matt Stone Racing. Kostecki joined cousins Kurt and Jake for 2018 in a three-car Kostecki Brothers Racing effort, breaking through for his first Super2 Series race and round wins at Sandown en route to fifth in the final standings.

After a strong start to 2019, Kostecki sat out the bulk of the season as KBR focused on its Enduro Cup wildcard entry, but the closure of the family team left his future uncertain beyond an Enduro Cup co-drive with Erebus.

Kostecki was given a chance by Eggleston Motorsport, and he drove for its Super2 squad while working in its workshop and staying with team owners Ben and Rachael Eggleston. A first-up win in Adelaide repaid their faith, but it was his Bathurst co-drive that turned heads; Kostecki raced door-to-door with several of Supercars’ biggest names without backing down and forced Jamie Whincup into making a race-ending mistake.

The effort landed him a ‘main game’ seat with Erebus for 2021, and he wasted no time dispelling any doubters by claiming his first podium finish in greasy, wet conditions at Sandown, while a swashbuckling final stint earnt him a trip to the Repco Bathurst 1000 podium with co-driver David Russell.

A career-first pole position and more podiums followed in 2022, but Erebus’ preparation for the arrival of Gen3 gave Kostecki his first shot at championship glory. In addition to a slew of wins and pole positions, it was the way Kostecki battled and fended off departing star Shane van Gisbergen that emphasised that he was truly a deserving champion.

However, he sat out the first two events of the 2024 season and endured a rough run of incidents and unreliability before pairing with Todd Hazelwood - who deputised for him in the early-season rounds - to take a dominant win in the ‘Great Race’.

RYAN WOOD

Mobil 1TM Truck Assist Racing Ford Mustang GT

AGE 20

FROM Wellington, NZ

LIVES Melbourne, VIC

FACEBOOK @ryanwoodracing INSTAGRAM @ryanwood40_

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

DEBUT 2024

ROUNDS 10

RACES 20

BEST FINISH 4th

PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 2nd

GOLD COAST STATS

DEBUT 2024

ROUNDS N/A

RACES N/A

BEST FINISH N/A

PODIUMS N/A

BEST QUAL N/A

2024 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

RACES 20

BEST FINISH 4th

PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 2nd

CHAMP POS 16th

Ryan Wood completed a rapid rise to the Repco Supercars Championship grid in 2024 by taking over the marquee #2 entry at Walkinshaw Andretti United.

The 20-year-old New Zealander was one of the standout stars of last year’s Dunlop Super2 Series despite it being his first season in a Supercar.

Driving for WAU, which returned to the Supercars’ second tier for the first time in over a decade, Wood took a season-high five race wins and four pole positions. The efforts allowed him to claim the Super2 Pole Award in his first – and, as it proved, only – campaign.

However, it was his performance in a mid-year test day at Winton aboard one of WAU’s Gen3 Ford Mustangs that sealed his promotion to the team’s ‘main game’ squad for 2024.

The deal validated a bold decision made at the end of 2022, when Wood had two clear options for his career going forward.

At that point, he’d just completed an impressive maiden season of racing in Australia in Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge driving for Porsche New Zealand and Earl Bamber Motorsport.

Wood claimed four out of six round wins and a sweep of all six pole positions on the way to a narrow second-placing behind Thomas Sargent in the Pro Class standings.

The result guaranteed graduation to Porsche Carrera Cup Australia for 2023 via the Team Porsche New Zealand scholarship.

On the other hand, he was also presented with the opportunity to do Super2 with WAU off the back of starring in a mid-November Evaluation Day test aboard one of the team’s Gen2 Holden Commodores ZBs.

History shows that Wood knocked back the Porsche opportunity and chose to move directly onto the Supercars ladder with WAU in order to pursue a career in the ‘main game’, a gamble that paid dividends in less than 12 months.

A multiple karting champion in his homeland, Wood earnt the Team Porsche NZ scholarship after impressing in his first two seasons of car racing.

Graduating from karting into the country’s Toyota 86 racing series for 2020, Wood finished 10th in his first campaign, then came agonisingly close to winning the title in his second.

He won six out of 15 races and claimed six pole positions, but a puncture in the final race of the season led him to finish third in the 2021 standings.

He then raced a Porsche 991 Cup Car in the 2021/22 South Island Endurance Series, taking victory in the series without losing a single race.

3 AARON LOVE

CoolDrive Racing

Ford Mustang GT

AGE 22

FROM Perth, WA

LIVES Melbourne, VIC

FACEBOOK @AaronLove

INSTAGRAM @aaronlove78

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

DEBUT 2023

ROUNDS 12

RACES 22

BEST FINISH 12th

PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 13th

GOLD COAST STATS

DEBUT 2024

ROUNDS N/A

RACES N/A

BEST FINISH N/A

PODIUMS N/A

BEST QUAL N/A

2024 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

RACES 20

BEST FINISH 12th

PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 13th

CHAMP POS 24th

Aaron Love has endured a tough rookie Repco Supercars Championship season in 2024, having made the step up from the Dunlop Super2 Series with the Blanchard Racing Team this year.

The son of Western Australian racer Ian and the younger sibling of fellow young gun Jordan, Love started karting at six years old and made his circuit racing debut six years later in Wanneroo’s Formula 1000 class.

Love then moved into Formula 4 in 2017 and claimed third place in the 2018 championship with Team BRM before following his brother onto the Porsche Motorsport ladder.

He joined Sonic Motor Racing Services for the 2019 Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge season, where he won six races but narrowly missed out on the title.

He became the youngest driver in Carrera Cup history when, at age 17, he made his debut at the 2019 season-ending Gold Coast round as a dress rehearsal for what was supposed to be a full-season tilt in 2020.

However, the following two seasons were both impacted by the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Love claimed his maiden top-three race finish in the opening round of 2020 at Adelaide only for the season to suddenly end midway through the Albert Park round, while he finished fifth overall in the five-round 2021 season.

Love spent the 2022 season primarily in Europe to race in France’s Carrera Cup series. Driving for longtime Porsche squad Alméras Frères, he finished fifth in the final standings with a fourth-place finish his best race result of the season, coming at former French Grand Prix venue Magny-Cours.

The Alméras squad also fielded him in a pair of cameo appearances in Porsche Supercup, racing on the Formula 1 support card at Paul Ricard and Silverstone. Closer to home, he did just six of the eight Carrera Cup Australia rounds as he focused on his French campaign but still won the Enduro Cup and finished within a few points of nabbing the overall title after taking 12 wins in just 18 race starts.

Last year marked a full-time return to Australian shores for Love, whose season in Europe prompted him to focus his energies on trying to climb the Supercars ladder.

He linked up with Blanchard Racing Team, which branched into the Super2 Series for the first season that Gen2-era machinery was eligible. Love proved fast aboard BRT’s Petronas-backed Ford Mustang, and claimed his first race win in the category at Mount Panorama – a victory that was also the first in any category for BRT.

Love also made his ‘main game’ debut with BRT in a wildcard entry at last year’s endurance races aboard the same Gen3 Mustang he is steering in 2024.

CAMERON HILL

Tyrepower Racing

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

AGE 27

FROM Canberra, ACT

LIVES Canberra, ACT

FACEBOOK @cameronhill11

INSTAGRAM @cameron_hill4

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

DEBUT 2022

ROUNDS 23

RACES 49

BEST FINISH 5th

PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 4th

GOLD COAST STATS

DEBUT 2023

ROUNDS 1

RACES 2

BEST FINISH 15th

PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 22nd

2024 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

RACES 10

BEST FINISH 5th

PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 4th

CHAMP POS 13th

Cameron Hill has enjoyed a strong sophomore season in the Repco Supercars Championship with Gold Coast-based outfit Matt Stone Racing.

Hailing from Canberra, Hill won a host of state and national titles in karting before graduating to Formula Ford in 2014, where he romped to the Australian title a year later.

He continued his strong form into the Toyota 86 Racing Series, winning more races than any other driver in the class across 2016 and 2017 while posting a pair of top-three championship finishes.

His success led to an opportunity in Carrera Cup. In 2018, Hill was one of four promising young drivers recruited to Porsche’s Michelin Junior program.

After finishing ninth in the standings in his rookie season, Hill claimed his maiden pole position and race wins at Hidden Valley in 2019 on his way to sixth in the title, and took his maiden round win at the second and final event of the category’s COVID-impacted 2020 season.

Hill was peerless on his way to the Carrera Cup title in 2021, finishing in the top three in 11 of the 13 races held – including a streak of six straight race wins.

His rise through Australian motorsport, from junior open-wheel racing to Carrera Cup, came in cars entered and prepared by his own family-run team. However, for his step up to Super2 in 2022, Hill landed a plum seat driving for reigning champions Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Hill impressed in his first season in a Supercar. Although his more experienced teammate Declan Fraser took out the title, Hill matched him six-all across the year’s qualifying sessions and stood on the podium twice.

A rough Sandown round, where he was spun early in the first race then boxed around in the mid-field shuffles during the second, plus a crash at Adelaide’s infamous Turn 8 left him fifth in the final points standings.

Hill also made his ‘main game’ debut in that year’s Repco Bathurst 1000 with PremiAir Racing, losing a potential top 10 finish with a late power steering problem.

He’d already tasted Mount Panorama success earlier in the year, winning the Bathurst 6 Hour production car race with Tom Sargeant in a BMW that started from the tail the grid, sealing the win with an electric late-race pass over Skyline on Supercars rival Tim Slade.

He had a steady rookie Supercars campaign last year with flashes of speed and enjoyed a strong start to 2024, qualifying for Top 10 Shootouts at Bathurst, Taupō and Hidden Valley, and posting a career-best race finish of fifth place in the opening race at the Mount Panorama round, plus a pair of top-10 finishes at the Sandown and Bathurst enduros.

WATERS

Castrol Racing

Mustang GT

Mildura, VIC

s Melbourne, VIC

Tickford Racing’s spearhead, Cam Waters has matured into an aggressive, wellrounded racer that is unlucky not to have a Supercars title win under his belt already. While three wins have him in mathematical contention this year, a difficult start to 2024 has him 464 points adrift with a maximum of 600 left to claim.

Waters began his racing career in go-karts, collecting multiple national and state titles before graduating to Formula Vee in 2009, then winning the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2011.

He also made headlines that year by taking out the Shannons Supercar Showdown TV series, earning a drive alongside Grant Denyer in the Bathurst 1000 where he became the youngest driver to compete in the famous race. Later in the year he made his Super2 Series debut in a Kelly Racing-run Commodore and continued with the team into 2012, competing under the Dreamtime Racing banner, and returned to Bathurst to share a car with 2012 Shannons Supercar Showdown series winner Jesse Dixon.

He spent the next few years learning his craft in Super2, firstly with Minda Motorsport in 2013 before moving to Ford Performance Racing in 2014, romping to the 2015 title with four round wins, four poles and 10 race wins. Waters filled in for an injured Chaz Mostert in late 2015 in the #6 Pepsi Max Crew Falcon before a full-time step up to the ‘main game’ in 2016. He claimed his first championship race win in 2017 alongside Richie Stanaway at the Sandown 500 on his way to eighth in the final standings, but he slumped to 16th during Tickford’s difficult 2018 campaign.

However, Mostert’s 2020 departure paved the way for a coming-of-age campaign for Waters as team leader. He scored his first single-driver race win at The Bend and then turned on a sublime performance at Bathurst, taking pole position and pressuring Shane van Gisbergen all the way to the flag to finish second in the race and the championship.

Hobbled in 2021 by Tickford’s struggles at Sydney Motorsport Park’s four rounds, Waters returned to form in 2022 and was often the biggest thorn in van Gisbergen’s side on his way to second in the championship.

Waters was awarded the first race victory of the Gen3 era in Newcastle following Triple Eight’s double-disqualification from the season-opener, giving him the championship lead for the first time. However, the balance of the season was a struggle amid the Ford Mustang’s wider parity issues, although lateseason changes allowed Waters to end the year with wins at the Gold Coast and Adelaide.

Waters achieved a life dream in 2024 of racing in the NASCAR Cup Series at Sonoma, having made a pair of starts in the third-tier Truck Series earlier in the year.

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JAMES COURTNEY

Snowy River Racing Ford Mustang GT

AGE 44

FROM Penrith, NSW

LIVES Gold Coast, QLD FACEBOOK @JamesCourtneyRacing INSTAGRAM @jcourtney

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

DEBUT 2005

ROUNDS 255 RACES 574

WINS 15

PODIUMS 65

POLES 10

GOLD COAST STATS DEBUT 2006

ROUNDS 16

1 PODIUMS 3 BEST QUAL 2nd

2024 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

20 BEST FINISH 6th

0 BEST QUAL 3rd CHAMP POS 20th

Former Supercars champion James Courtney might be entering the twilight of his decorated career, but he has shown flashes of form in his first year with the expanded Blanchard Racing Team.

Courtney’s famed ‘Frank the Tank’ victory celebration hasn’t been sighted since 2016, a drought he is looking to end this year. Although it has been a challenging season for the now two-car team, Courtney shone in Townsville with a stunning Top 10 Shootout appearance to claim third on the grid for the Sunday race.

His list of achievements before joining Supercars full-time in 2006 is impressive, with two world karting championships, a Formula Ford title and Formula 3 race wins in Britain. Those feats landed him a Formula 1 testing role with Jaguar until a high-speed crash at Monza in 2002 changed the course of his career. Courtney moved to Japan to win the 2003 Japanese Formula 3 title and then shifted to Super GT. His versatility caught the attention of the then-Holden Racing Team, which signed him as an endurance driver alongside veteran Jim Richards in 2005.

Stone Brothers Racing signed Courtney to replace the NASCAR-bound Marcos Ambrose for 2006 and he finished on the podium at Bathurst for three straight years, taking his maiden Supercars race win at Queensland Raceway in 2008.

Courtney then moved to Dick Johnson Racing, winning a pair of races in 2009 then delivering five more in 2010 on the way to an underdog championship victory.

Courtney took the reigning champion’s #1 plate across to the Holden Racing Team in 2011 but results were sporadic, with seven race wins coming from his nine seasons with the team.

He rounded out his time with the squad in a strong fashion, a third-place finish in the Bathurst 1000 headlining a run of top 10 finishes to end 2019.

He began the 2020 season with Team Sydney but they parted ways after just one round, and teamed with backer Boost Mobile to pounce on an opportunity at Tickford Racing when 23Red Racing closed its doors. Courtney showed flashes of the speed that won him a Supercars title 10 years earlier with a podium result at Hidden Valley in Darwin and a further three fourth-place finishes.

Courtney continued his streak of podium appearances through 2021, 2022 and into the Gen3 era in 2023, although his Wanneroo podium proved his only trip to the dais for a season in which Ford’s parity troubles and a pair of non-starts through accident damage restricted him to 17th in the championship standings, and left Tickford at the end of the season as it cut back from four cars to two.

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ANDRE HEIMGARTNER

R&J Batteries Racing

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

AGE 29

FROM Auckland, NZ

LIVES Perth, WA FACEBOOK @AHRacing INSTAGRAM @andreheimgartner

CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

2014

264

In his third season now with Brad Jones Racing, Andre Heimgartner has cemented his reputation as one of the new generation of stars of the Repco Supercars Championship, the Kiwi taking an emotional win on home soil at Taupō in April.

Heimgartner’s early career progressed through Formula Ford, Porsche Carrera Cup Australia and the Dunlop Super2 Series. His Supercars Championship debut came as a wildcard with Super Black Racing in an FPR-prepared Falcon in the 2014 Bathurst 1000 ahead of a full-time drive in 2015.

The Kiwi showed flashes of speed aboard the Super Black Falcon but was not given the opportunity to complete the season and shifted to Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport in 2016. He then missed out on a full-time seat in 2017 and, without so much as a co-drive, appeared lost to Supercars before a call-up to replace an injured Ash Walsh at BJR on the Friday of the Bathurst 1000.

Heimgartner continued with the team on the Gold Coast where a stirring drive in wet conditions helped net a podium alongside Tim Slade, a result that caught the attention of Kelly Racing. The then-Nissan squad signed him to a full-time deal in 2018 and retained the Kiwi through 2019 – its last year fielding Nissan Altimas – and into 2020, when it scaled back to two cars and switched to Ford.

He came close to breaking through for his first win during that COVID-impacted season, adding two second place finishes in Kelly Racing’s first season running Mustangs to the podium finish he’d achieved with the Altima in 2019 at Phillip Island. After edging teammate Rick Kelly in the standings in 2019, Heimgartner was clearly the team leader in 2020.

Heimgartner also matched well against David Reynolds in 2021; his breakthrough victory at The Bend was one of 11 top-10 finishes that put him clear of his teammate in the final points standings, despite the now-Kelly Grove Racing Mustangs’ form varying sharply from circuit to circuit.

He returned to BJR on a full-time basis in 2022 and settled in quickly as team leader he was its fastest qualifier 27 times, and posted four podiums amid 21 top-10 finishes that delivered him his first finish inside the championship top 10. Heimgartner continued leading the Albury squad in the Gen3 era, last year taking pole position for the night race at Sydney Motorsport Park and six podium finishes on the way to a career-best seventh in points.

Originally from New Zealand, Heimgartner moved to Perth last year with fiancée Jemma, and the couple adding baby André to daughter Summer in September.

At Repco, we sure know what gets us goin’.

That love of the drive. We get cars.

That’s why we’re best placed to help you with whatever gets you goin’.

And if you don’t get cars, we get that too. No judgement here.

So, whatever drives you…

JACK LE BROCQ

Erebus Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 AGE 32 FROM Melbourne, VIC LIVES Brisbane, QLD

@JackLeBrocq.com.au

@jack_lebrocq

CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

2015

Jack Le Brocq reunited with Erebus Motorsport for 2024 in a move that saw him join the reigning Repco Supercars Championship-winning team.

Coming up through the ranks of karts and Formula Vee, Le Brocq won the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2012. That same year he was bestowed with the CAMS Rising Star award, before being recruited into the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy.

Le Brocq caught the attention of Erebus team owner Betty Klimenko, who drafted him into her squad’s academy to drive Formula 3 and GT machinery; the latter included a podium in the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour.

He made his Supercars Championship debut at Sandown in 2015 sharing one of the team’s E63 AMGs alongside Ash Walsh.

By that point Le Brocq had already completed nearly two Dunlop Super2 Series seasons, having debuted in 2014 in an Image Racing-run Falcon and then an MW Motorsport Ford in 2015.

Le Brocq moved to Tickford Racing – then known as Prodrive Racing Australia – for 2016 and won seven races, but was beaten to the crown by teammate Garry Jacobson. He dovetailed his Super2 program at the Ford squad with an Enduro Cup co-drive alongside Cam Waters, the pair finishing fourth together at Bathurst.

In 2017, he moved back to MW Motorsport for the Super2 Series and became Nissan’s first Super2 race winner at Symmons Plains. He also competed as a wildcard entry in a selection of Supercars Championship events, in addition to serving as Kelly’s Nissan co-driver in the Enduro Cup.

Le Brocq moved into the ‘main game’ with TEKNO in 2018, finishing the season as the best of five rookies, but a difficult second year led to a return to Tickford.

A first Supercars Championship career win came in 2020 in a mixed tyre format race at Sydney Motorsport Park, backing it up with a second at The Bend.

Le Brocq’s second season with Tickford started strongly with sixth in the opening race at Mount Panorama but, although he finished just one place lower in the final points standings than the previous year, top five results proved elusive.

Le Brocq shifted north to Matt Stone Racing for 2022, a season highlighted by strong qualifying performances; Le Brocq scored the team’s first front-row start at Symmons Plains and led the opening lap of the race.

He then shone in the inaugural season of Gen3, taking his maiden Supercars pole position at Hidden Valley and converting it to a commanding race victory, both firsts for the Gold Coast-based Chevrolet outfit.

NICK PERCAT

Matt Stone Racing

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

AGE 36

FROM Adelaide, SA

LIVES Melbourne, VIC FACEBOOK @nickpercat INSTAGRAM @nickpercat SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS DEBUT 2010

153

336

COAST STATS

2013

6th

3rd

POS 7th

It took just two rounds for Nick Percat’s shift to Matt Stone Racing to bear fruit, taking an emotional race win in Supercars’ visit to Albert Park in March. He’s since added another victory at Symmons Plains and is a driver to watch across the closing rounds of the season.

His MSR move followed two challenging seasons at Walkinshaw Andretti United, the team that ushered him through the junior ranks towards Supercars and a shock Bathurst 1000 win on debut in 2011 with Garth Tander. Signed by Walkinshaw Racing in 2007, Percat won the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2009 with a record number of race wins, then finished fourth in the 2010 Super2 Series to earn the endurance drive that, in 2011, saw him become the first rookie Bathurst winner in over 30 years.

Percat remained part of HRT’s endurance line-up while racing in Super2 for Walkinshaw Racing until the end of 2012, before switching to drive in the Porsche Carrera Cup in 2013.

He finally joined the ‘main game’ full time with Walkinshaw in 2014 under a Racing Entitlements Contract owned by James Rosenberg.

A second place finish at Sydney Motorsport Park and a third place at the Bathurst 1000 headlined a season where Percat was the highest-placed rookie with 12th in points, but he was left without a drive when Rosenberg elected to sell his REC at the end of the season.

Percat landed at Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport in 2015 and spent the following two seasons driving for his former Formula Ford teammate’s minnow squad. While it was a tough period, the combination scored an upset Adelaide 500 win in 2016, a season that also included a Bathurst 1000 podium alongside Cameron McConville, before he settled into a long stint at Brad Jones Racing.

It was at BJR where Percat established his credentials as a driver capable of winning races in his own right. In five seasons with the Albury-based team, he brought home top-10 points finishes in all but 2017, his first year driving for it. Percat took a pair of upset victories during the COVID-impacted 2020 season, while a string of consistent top 10 results across 2020 and 2021 delivered backto-back seventh placings in points.

His return to WAU was heralded as a homecoming but highlights were few, headed by a second-place finish behind teammate Chaz Mostert at the season-ending 2022 Adelaide 500, the team carrying a retro Holden Racing Team livery in the marque’s final event in the championship.

Things didn’t improve last year amid the team’s switch to Ford Mustang machinery, and the fourth-generation Holden employee renewed his links with General Motors at MSR this year.

ANTON DE PASQUALE

Shell V-Power Racing Team

Ford Mustang GT

AGE 29

FROM Melbourne, VIC LIVES Gold Coast, QLD FACEBOOK @antondepasquale86 INSTAGRAM @antondepasquale SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS DEBUT 2018

201

2018

6th

5th

FINISH 3rd

QUAL 2nd

POS 9th

Anton De Pasquale will look to end his four-year stint with Dick Johnson Racing on a strong note across the closing rounds of this year, having gone public in September about his move to Team 18 for 2025. While it’s been a challenging couple of seasons for Dick Johnson Racing, De Pasquale has provided the legendary squad its only win of the Gen3 era so far. He triumphed in last year’s Sunday Townsville race, albeit aided by an extra set of fresh tyres saved through his early retirement from the Saturday race.

The high points this year have been strong weekends in Taupō, a round he won overall to claim the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy, and at Sydney Motorsport Park where he notched up a pair of top-five finishes.

Like many Supercars stars before him, De Pasquale followed a successful career in karting by winning the Australian Formula Ford Championship, taking the title in 2013.

He then set his sights on European open wheelers, winning the highly competitive Formula Renault 1.6 NEC Championship in 2014 with nine victories in 15 races. The next step was the Formula Renault 2.0 Series, but a lack of funding meant opportunities beyond that proved limited and he returned to Australia determined to break into Supercars.

De Pasquale joined Paul Morris Motorsports in 2016 in the Dunlop Super2 Series, finishing 11th as a rookie and third in the Bathurst 250-kilometre mini-endurance race in an older generation FG Falcon.

The following year he stepped into an ex-Prodrive FG X Falcon with Morris’ team and claimed his first Super2 race and round wins at Phillip Island, followed later in the year with another race and round win at Sydney Motorsport Park, plus his first Super2 pole at Sandown on his way to fourth in the series.

He was given a rookie test with Erebus late in 2017 and subsequently signed on as a full- time driver for the following year as teammate to David Reynolds. The headline of De Pasquale’s rookie season was a stunning Top 10 Shootout lap at the Bathurst 1000, where he stormed to third on the grid fractionally behind polewinning teammate Reynolds and seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup. All up though, Reynolds had the youngster’s measure across their first two seasons together but the tide turned in 2020, with De Pasquale taking his first race win at Hidden Valley.

He shifted to Dick Johnson Racing in 2021, replacing the departing Scott McLaughlin and working with the three-time series champion’s former crew, headed by engineering guru Ludo Lacroix. De Pasquale claimed race wins in each of his first three seasons with DJR – including Ford’s milestone 400th ATCC/Supercars Championship race win in 2021.

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JAXON EVANS

SCT Motorsport

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

AGE 28

FROM Levin, NZ

LIVES Gold Coast, QLD

FACEBOOK @jaxonjevans

INSTAGRAM @jaxonevans_

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

DEBUT 2022

ROUNDS 13

RACES 23

BEST FINISH 10th

PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 15th

GOLD COAST STATS

DEBUT 2024

ROUNDS N/A

RACES N/A

BEST FINISH N/A

PODIUMS N/A

BEST QUAL N/A

2024 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

RACES 20

BEST FINISH 10th

PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 15th

CHAMP POS 23rd

Jaxon Evans arrived this year as a full-time Repco Supercars Championship rookie with substantial international pedigree, the Kiwi having spent the past few seasons as a Porsche factory racer.

Born on the Fijian island of Rotuma, Evans was adopted as a baby by John and Deborah Evans, both of whom were involved in New Zealand motorsport as a mechanic and a racer respectively. In fact, Evans is a third-generation racer; his mum Deborah is part of the Lester their parents were a driving force behind the creation and running of the Manfeild Park circuit for several decades.

Moving to Australia when he was nine, Evans became interested in motorsport via the career of cousin Jono Lester, and started karting at age 11. That led to several seasons of karting and Formula Ford, but it was a test at Queensland Raceway aboard a McElrea Racing-run Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car when he was 17 years old that launched his career.

Evans’ impressive performance saw him brought under team boss Andy McElrea’s wing, ushering him up the Porsche ladder through GT3 Cup in 2015-16 and into Carrera Cup in 2017, culminating in a dominant 2018 season where he won six races amid 16 top-3 finishes on the way to the title.

His next career step came at the end of the year when he won the annual Porsche Junior Programme Shootout at Paul Ricard in France, beating out 10 other rising stars to earn a €225,000 scholarship and a drive in the 2019 Porsche Supercup, a regular support category at Formula 1 Grands Prix around Europe.

Despite no knowledge of the circuits, Evans impressed with a pole and a pair of podiums during a tough rookie season and landed a full-time drive in the Carrera Cup France for 2020. A title-winning season earnt him a return to Supercup for 2021, where he won at the Red Bull Ring on the way to second in the championship.

That result earnt him a multi-year contract with Porsche as one of its pool of gun steerers that it deploys to its GT partners in sportscar categories around the world.

Evans had dovetailed his 2021 Supercup season with a full-time World Endurance Championship drive with Dempsey Proton Racing – the team co-owned by movie and television star Patrick Dempsey – including making his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, while his Porsche contract saw him race across Europe and the United States in 2022 and 2023.

He made his Supercars debut as a co-driver with Brad Jones Racing at the 2022 Repco Bathurst 1000, and rejoined the team for last year’s endurance races before taking over the reins of the SCT Motorsport entry full-time this year.

BRYCE FULLWOOD

Middy’s Racing

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

AGE 26

FROM Darwin, NT

LIVES Gold Coast, QLD FACEBOOK @brycefullwoodracing INSTAGRAM @brycefullwood

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

DEBUT 2018

ROUNDS 64

RACES 149

BEST FINISH 3rd

PODIUMS 2

BEST QUAL 3rd

GOLD COAST STATS

DEBUT 2018

ROUNDS 4 RACES 8

BEST FINISH 10th PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 12th

2024 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS RACES 20

BEST FINISH 3rd PODIUMS 1

BEST QUAL 5th

CHAMP POS 18th

The first full-time Repco Supercars Championship racer to hail from Darwin, Bryce Fullwood continues to do the Northern Territory proud in his third season with Brad Jones Racing.

Fullwood ticked a long-awaited box with BJR in August, claiming his first podium finish with the squad in Symmons Plains, having come agonisingly close to doing so at Albert Park last year, only to drop to 12th with a post-race time penalty for an unsafe release from his pitstop.

The Tasmanian podium marked a welcome return to form for BJR, whose early-season struggles leave Fullwood a lowly 18th in points. In contrast, a consistent season last year almost allowed him to crack the top 10 in points, performances that followed a steady first season with BJR in 2022, in which his best result of the season was a fighting ninth place finish at the Repco Bathurst 1000.

Fullwood graduated to the ‘main game’ with Walkinshaw Andretti United in 2020 after winning the Dunlop Super2 Series title in 2019 in an MW Motorsport Nissan. Very much in the shadow of WAU’s star signing Chaz Mostert, Fullwood quietly went about settling into the top-flight before a series of mid-season qualifying performances captured attention.

His standout race result was a maiden podium finish at The Bend in September, ending the year as the best of two rookies on the championship grid that year.

He struggled to recapture that form in his sophomore season, however; fifth placings at Bathurst bookended a year that delivered only a handful of top-10 qualifying performances and race finishes.

Although technically a Supercars rookie in 2020, Fullwood already had five years of experience in the Dunlop Super2 Series, which he’d entered at the tender age of 16.

That first foray from karts into Super2 came in 2015, contesting the bulk of the season with Paul Morris Motorsports before switching to MWM for the final round, ending the year 17th.

He was 14th with MWM in 2016 and then 11th in 2017 after switching from one of the team’s previous-generation Falcons to a Nissan Altima mid-season, which brought an immediate upturn in results.

Fullwood’s career momentum took a hit in 2018 when he struggled to 17th in the Super2 standings with Matt Stone Racing, starting the year in a Falcon FG X before moving to a Commodore VF.

A move back to MWM for 2019 was touted as a make-or-break season and Fullwood made it count, winning the title in convincing fashion to earn his ‘main game’ promotion.

WILL DAVISON

Shell V-Power Racing Team

Ford Mustang GT

AGE 42

FROM Melbourne, VIC LIVES Gold Coast, QLD FACEBOOK @willdavisonofficial INSTAGRAM @willdavison_

CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

2004

255

566

Will Davison continues to prove a competitive force two decades on from his debut in the Repco Supercars Championship.

The veteran’s storied Supercars career came after climbing the open wheel racing ranks, winning the 2001 Australian Formula Ford Championship before taking on Europe. He raced Formula Renault, Formula 3 and A1 Grand Prix, and tested with the Minardi Formula 1 team in late 2004.

By that point, he had already made his Supercars debut courtesy of a handful of starts with Team Dynamik in 2004; he was supposed to drive full-time for it in 2005 before a deal broke down on the eve of the season-opening Adelaide 500.

Davison first linked with Dick Johnson Racing for the 2005 endurance races before joining the team full-time for 2006, his threeyear stint with the squad including finishing on the podium at Bathurst with Steven Johnson in 2007 and taking a maiden race and round win at Eastern Creek in 2008, plus another round triumph at Winton.

He joined the Holden Racing Team in 2009, a move that yielded a Bathurst win and second in the championship in its first year before a tough 2010. Three years as a regular front-runner at Ford Performance Racing followed, ahead of a two-year stint with Erebus Motorsport during its Mercedes era, which produced a solitary win at Wanneroo in 2015.

Davison then spent two years at TEKNO Autosports, winning Bathurst with Jonathon Webb and finishing fifth in the championship standings in 2016 prior to a second-year slump, but he remained on the grid for 2018 courtesy of a lifeline from 23Red Racing.

He led the team through a difficult maiden season and reaped the rewards in 2019 when Tickford Racing took over operating the 23Red entry, coming agonisingly close to wins at Queensland Raceway and The Bend. However, the team closed its doors during the early stages of 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic; Davison was fourth in the championship standings at the time yet out of a drive. A co-drive lifeline came from Tickford, and a second-placing with Cam Waters at Bathurst earnt a golden latecareer opportunity with DJR.

Front-running performances during the 2021 season were finally converted to wins in 2022, while Davison came one top-qualifying performance shy of netting the Pole Champion Award. Ford’s parity deficit in the first year of Gen3 meant 2023 was challenging for Davison, for whom the highlight was a podium finish at Hidden Valley that was one of just two top-five finishes across the season.

Davison’s 2024 highlights are a second-place finish in the Saturday race at Taupō and a pole position at Sydney Motorsport Park.

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18 MARK WINTERBOTTOM

Cub Cadet Racing

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

AGE 43

FROM Sydney, NSW

LIVES Melbourne, VIC

FACEBOOK @markjwinterbottom

INSTAGRAM @markjwinterbottom

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

DEBUT 2003

ROUNDS 285

RACES 641

WINS 39

PODIUMS 120 POLES 36

GOLD COAST STATS

DEBUT 2004

ROUNDS 18

RACES 40

WINS 2

PODIUMS 10 POLES 2

2024 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

RACES 20

BEST FINISH 2nd

PODIUMS 2

BEST QUAL 3rd

CHAMP POS 15th

Mark Winterbottom is facing an uncertain Repco Supercars Championship future with just two rounds remaining before ending a six-year tenure with Team 18.

Prior to joining the General Motors-aligned squad for 2019, Winterbottom – who has carried the nickname ‘Frosty’ for most of his career – had been synonymous with Ford.

Winning the Ford KartStars Series springboarded him into Formula Ford, where he finished runner-up to future Supercars rival Jamie Whincup in the 2002 Australian championship.

He was picked up by Stone Brothers Racing in 2003 and drove an AU Falcon to victory in the Super2 Series. That year he also made his Supercars Championship debut as an endurance driver in SBR’s second car.

He moved into the championship full-time in 2004 with Mark Larkham’s Falcon squad and joined Ford Performance Racing in 2006, beginning a relationship that spanned 13 seasons, earnt a Supercars Championship title and a Bathurst 1000 victory.

Victory in the 2013 Bathurst 1000 alongside Steve Richards remains Winterbottom’s Mount Panorama highlight, the win coming in his 11th start in the ‘Great Race’. He also secured a long sought-after championship win in 2015.

Winterbottom initially joined Team 18 on a two-year deal, but has since signed two more contract extensions to remain with the squad until the end of 2024.

His time with the team started with a bang, taking pole position in just his third event aboard its Triple Eight-built Commodore at Symmons Plains, but continued to fall agonisingly short of a podium finish.

That drought continued into the final season of Gen2, although Winterbottom’s consistent top-10 results netted a ninth-place championship finish, his best since departing Tickford and equalling the best scored by any Team 18 driver.

The breakthrough podium finally came with a bang in 2023, with Winterbottom’s victory at Hidden Valley putting him on the top step for the first time since Pukekohe in late-2016.

Winterbottom’s success and longevity means he tops the lists of most race wins, podiums and poles among active drivers on the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship grid.

It took him just two rounds to add to the podium metric in 2024; Winterbottom raced to second place in the Friday race at Albert Park and backed it up with another at Hidden Valley in June, representing his 119th and 120th trips to the dais across his Supercars career.

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MATT PAYNE

Penrite Racing Ford Mustang GT

AGE 22

FROM Auckland, NZ

LIVES Melbourne, VIC

@matthewpayne.racing

@matthewpayne_7

CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

2022

Apair of pole positions at Albert Park and Taupō plus a storming victory in Townsville shows that Matt Payne’s incredible finish to his rookie Repco Supercars Championship season last year was no flash in the pan.

The 21-year-old New Zealander turned in several impressive performances as last year went on, culminating in a pair of front-row starts at the final two rounds and a dominant drive at the VAILO Adelaide 500 that made him the 85th driver to win an ATCC/Supercars Championship race.

Payne’s performances are all the more remarkable given it was only his third full season racing cars since stepping up from karting, where the Auckland teen scored multiple championships.

Those successes initially led to a chance to race karts in Europe in 2020, but the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic scuppered the deal. Instead, he graduated to circuit racing in New Zealand’s Toyota Racing Series, winning the three-race 2021 title and finishing third in the New Zealand Grand Prix.

Payne was also the first recipient of the Team Porsche NZ scholarship under the tutelage of multiple Le Mans 24 Hours winner Earl Bamber, leading to a drive in Porsche Carrera Cup Australia in 2021. He impressed with back-to-back poles at The Bend and Townsville and put in an assured drive to victory at the latter round, finishing sixth in the standings overall.

Payne’s form saw him recruited as the foundation driver of the Grove Junior Team in mid-2021, with the goal of graduating to the Repco Supercars Championship with the squad last year.

There were indications he’d move to the ‘main game’ sooner than that, but Grove Racing elected to field him in a Nissan Altima in the second-tier class instead of rushing a promotion for 2022.

The extra season behind the wheel of a second-tier machine paid dividends with Payne sharpening his skills against a field of fellow Supercars aspirants, and he led the points early in the season off the back of his maiden race and round wins at Wanneroo.

But his title hopes took significant blows in Townsville, when he was the innocent victim of a crash off the start of the Sunday race, and the following round at Sandown, where he tangled with Matt Chadha while battling for second in the Saturday race. Payne rebounded with a win on the Sunday at Sandown and he remained in title contention all the way to the final race at Adelaide.

To cap his graduation, Payne finally made his ‘main game’ debut at the 2022 Repco Bathurst 1000, impressing alongside veteran Lee Holdsworth in finishing sixth.

DAVID REYNOLDS

TRADIE Beer Racing

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

AGE 39

FROM Albury, NSW

LIVES Melbourne, VIC FACEBOOK @davidreynoldsv8supercar INSTAGRAM @daffidreynolds

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

DEBUT 2007 ROUNDS 207

452

COAST STATS

2009

3 2024 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

FINISH 4th

QUAL 3rd

POS 14th

David Reynolds shifted to Team 18 for 2024 off the back of his best Repco Supercars Championship campaign in recent years.

The rise of Grove Racing over the past two seasons, and particularly the final rounds of 2023, allowed Reynolds to refresh the memories of those who’d forgotten his reputation as one of the category’s most formidable racers.

He held off the stern advances of eventual series champion Brodie Kostecki to claim a breakthrough victory for the team on the Gold Coast last year, ending a personal drought that stretched back to the final race of 2018 and falling on the 10th anniversary of his first win in the category.

Reynolds’ career to date is packed with success, winning the Australian Formula Ford and Carrera Cup titles en route to Supercars, where his debut came in 2007 as Cameron McConville’s co-driver at PWR Racing, and he drove a Tony D’Alberto Racing-run Holden in the 2008 Fujitsu (Super2) Series before graduating to the ‘main game’ in 2009 with Walkinshaw Racing.

Reduced to an endurance driver role for 2010, he returned to full-time duties with Kelly Racing in 2011 then jumped across to Rod Nash Racing to drive its FPR-prepared Falcon in 2012.

The move delivered instant results as Reynolds finished a close second in the 2012 Bathurst 1000 and built himself into a championship contender by 2015, finishing third that season before departing for Erebus.

He signed for Erebus when it was based on the Gold Coast and racing Mercedes-Benz AMG E63s, but the team elected to start afresh for 2016 with a move to Melbourne and ex-Walkinshaw Commodores. The year ended with a maiden podium finish at Sydney Olympic Park followed by their upset Bathurst 1000 triumph with Luke Youlden in 2017, and only a bout of ill-timed cramp stopped the pair from making it back-to-back ‘Great Race’ wins in 2018. The relationship soured during a rough 2020 campaign and they agreed to part ways at the end of the season, just one year into a 10-year deal.

His 2021 move to what was then known as Kelly Grove Racing put him in familiar surroundings, having driven for then-Holden team Kelly Racing in 2011.

After failing to grace the podium during his final season with Erebus, Reynolds returned to the dais in 2021 in just his fifth race with Kelly Grove Racing and led the resurgent Grove squad into the Gen3 era, which he opened with pole on Sunday in Newcastle.

Reynolds also became a factory GT driver in 2024, selected by Mercedes-AMG to join its pool of global stars in its ‘Expert’ tier.

TIM SLADE

PremiAir Nulon Racing

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

AGE 39

FROM Hornsby, NSW

LIVES Gold Coast, QLD FACEBOOK @TimSladeRacing INSTAGRAM @_timslade_

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

DEBUT 2009 ROUNDS 206 RACES 447 WINS 2 PODIUMS 17

GOLD COAST STATS DEBUT 2009 ROUNDS 13

FINISH 3rd

QUAL 3rd

2024 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

20 BEST FINISH 8th

0 BEST QUAL 4th CHAMP POS 19th

Tim Slade will tackle the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 for the final time this weekend as he prepares to bow out of Supercars full-time. The Sydney-born South Australian, who has long lived on the Gold Coast, announced last month that he will depart PremiAir Nulon Racing at year’s end after a challenging season where speed has yet to translate to results.

Slade began his career in open-wheelers, finishing second in the 2006 Australian Formula Ford Championship after also dabbling in Formula 3. Slade progressed to the Super2 Series in 2007 and the following year ran his own team to claim the Privateers Cup and a race and round win at Wakefield Park.

His persistence captured the attention of Supercars team owner Paul Morris and, with the help of long-time backer James Rosenberg, Slade was rewarded with a full-time championship drive in 2009. That season netted top 10 results alongside Morris in the Phillip Island and Bathurst endurance races.

A shift to Stone Brothers Racing in 2010 yielded further improvements, taking his first podium finish in 2011. A career best of fifth in points followed in 2012, before the Ford squad transformed into Erebus Motorsport for 2013.

He crossed the floor to Holden for the 2014 season, spending two years piloting Walkinshaw Racing Commodores then joining Brad Jones Racing in the Freightliner Commodore in 2016. That season included the standout weekend of Slade’s career to date; at the Winton round he took his first Supercars race win at his 227th attempt and repeated the following day. He finished 2016 eighth in the championship, but the following years proved tougher and left Slade with little more than a few podium finishes.

Unable to land a full-time drive for 2020, Slade secured a co-drive with DJR Team Penske, helping Scott McLaughlin secure his third Supercars title at Bathurst, before returning to the grid with upstart squad Blanchard Racing Team in 2021.

He posted impressive results with the one-car outfit and came very close to scoring top-10 championship finishes in both 2021 and 2022, before shifting to PremiAir for 2023. Bad luck scuppered Slade’s two best shots at podiums last year; a wheel nut problem turned fourth on the grid in Newcastle to 22nd, while engine problems took him out of fifth place at Symmons Plains.

Slade has proven his speed in various classes outside of Supercars in recent years, winning the World Time Attack Challenge in 2016 and 2017, sharing victory in the Intercontinental GT Challenge round at Laguna Seca in 2019 with HubAuto Racing, and setting a new outright lap record at Phillip Island aboard a Brabham BT62 supercar in 2022.

CHAZ MOSTERT

Mobil 1TM Optus Racing Ford Mustang GT

Melbourne, VIC

Gold Coast, QLD

@chazmozzie

Chaz Mostert has led Walkinshaw Andretti United in its first genuine Supercars championship challenge in many years in 2024, with three wins putting him in title contention with two rounds remaining. It’s what the established star was brought to WAU to do, the once-great squad enduring multiple rebuilding phases before recruiting Mostert for 2020.

Mostert began his career in karts and won the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2010, making his Dunlop Super2 Series debut the same year with Miles Racing. He competed in the series with them full-time in 2011 but was then snapped up by Ford Performance Racing, finishing third overall in 2012 with two round wins.

He began 2013 driving an ex-FPR Falcon for MW Motorsport in the Dunlop Series before receiving a ‘main game’ call-up to join Dick Johnson Racing and broke through for his maiden race win at Queensland Raceway, DJR’s first victory in three years. Will Davison’s exit from FPR opened the door for the FPR-contracted Mostert to drive its #6 Ford in 2014, when he took a famous last-lap Bathurst win with Paul Morris. A year later Mostert was mounting a serious title challenge when a horror qualifying crash at Bathurst left him with a broken leg and wrist, sidelining him for the rest of the year. He returned for the start of 2016 and proved a regular frontrunner for the Ford team over the next four seasons.

Mostert joined WAU for 2020 to take up the challenge of resurrecting the former champion squad’s fortunes. Long-time race engineer Adam DeBorre made the move with him, and the 2021 season saw them deliver a breakthrough victory at Symmons Plains – WAU’s first in three years – plus further wins at Hidden Valley and at Bathurst where Mostert and co-driver Lee Holdsworth took a dominant victory, claiming pole position and fastest lap of the race on the way to his second ‘Great Race’ triumph. The team’s switch to Ford for 2023 didn’t deliver the hoped-for silverware, but Mostert was the best-placed ‘Blue Oval’ driver in the final standings.

In addition to Supercars, Mostert has proven his pedigree in GT racing, undertaking a stint as a factory BMW driver that included pole position for the 2018 Bathurst 12 Hour and a class victory in the 2020 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. More recently, he became the co-owner of GT team Method Motorsport and has also spent the 2024 season driving a Ferrari 296 GT3 alongside Liam Talbot in the GT World Challenge Australia series.

Outside the cockpit, Mostert and fiancée Riarne welcomed daughter Everly in March, while he also serves as an ambassador for antibullying initiative Dolly’s Dream.

RICHIE STANAWAY

Penrite Racing

Ford Mustang GT

AGE 32

FROM Tauranga, NZ

LIVES Melbourne, VIC INSTAGRAM @richiestanaway

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

2016

COAST STATS

2016

7 BEST FINISH 2nd

BEST QUAL 21st

2024 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS RACES 20

BEST FINISH 4th PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 4th

CHAMP POS 17th

Richie Stanaway is heading towards another new chapter of his enigmatic Repco Supercars Championship career, with the Gold Coast event his penultimate round with Grove Racing before a move to PremiAir Racing for 2025.

Originally from a motocross background, Stanaway switched to speedway racing at age 12 and progressed through karts and open wheelers in Formula First and Formula Ford, clinching the New Zealand title in the latter in 2008/09. He competed in the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2009 before taking up an opportunity in Germany to test and race in the German-based ADAC Formula Masters Championship, a title he returned to win in 2010 with 12 race wins.

He rose quickly through Formula Renault UK and won the 2011 German F3 Series before spending time in GP3, Porsche Supercup, Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2, but lost career momentum when he missed most of 2012 after breaking his back in a FR3.5 crash at Spa-Francorchamps. Although he recovered and went on to win races in GP3 and GP2, F1 opportunities weren’t forthcoming so Stanaway shifted focus to GT racing, landing a coveted seat in Aston Martin’s FIA World Endurance Championship GT squad that included opportunities to race in the famous Le Mans 24 Hour.

Stanaway made his Supercars in 2016 with an impressive pair of co-drives in the Prodrive-run Super Black Racing Falcon, and partnered with Cam Waters to win the Sandown 500 the following year. The good results – including a race win in a cameo Dunlop Super2 Series appearance – led to his full-time main game debut in 2018 with the team. It was a bruising rookie season however, and both parties decided to go their separate ways at the end of the year. After another difficult season at Garry Rogers Motorsport, Stanaway quit motorsport entirely and got a day job at home in New Zealand.

However, an opportunity from long-time support Peter Adderton put him back into a Boost Mobile-backed wildcard alongside Greg Murphy for the Bathurst 1000. Initially slated for 2021 but delayed a year to 2022 due to the logistics of travel during COVID lockdowns, a revitalised Stanaway qualified for the Top 10 Shootout in a performance that helped land a Triple Eight co-drive for 2023.

A pair of sterling drives alongside Shane van Gisbergen at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, where they finished third, and the Repco Bathurst 1000, which they won, led to his full-time return to the category with Grove.

While the year hasn’t turned out how either party may have wanted, there have been clear flashes of Stanaway’s ability, most notably a fortnight ago at Mount Panorama.

JAMES GOLDING

PremiAir Nulon Racing

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

AGE 28

FROM Warragul, VIC

LIVES Gold Coast, QLD FACEBOOK @JamesGoldingMotorsport INSTAGRAM @jimmygolding

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

DEBUT 2016

ROUNDS 70 RACES 140

BEST FINISH 3rd PODIUMS 1

GOLD COAST STATS DEBUT 2016

ROUNDS 6 RACES 12

BEST FINISH 5th

0 BEST QUAL 6th

2024 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

20 BEST FINISH 3rd

1 POLES 1 CHAMP POS 5th

James Golding has enjoyed a breakthrough Repco Supercars Championship season in 2024, earning his first pole position at Hidden Valley and first podium at the Sandown 500 with PremiAir Nulon Racing.

An accomplished karter, the Warragul-raised racer has an Australia National title and two Victorian state titles to his name, while the Victorian represented Australia at the World Rotax Grand Finals in 2012, where he was ranked seventh in the world.

Golding graduated to open wheelers the following year, contesting the Victorian Formula Ford Championship and winning on debut.

Racking up the most race wins despite missing one round, Golding ended his maiden assault in fourth before stepping up to the national championship in 2014, when he was narrowly beaten to the title and finished third overall with five race wins.

Golding’s talent soon caught the eye of team owner Garry Rogers, who gave him the chance to contest the final round of the 2014 Dunlop Series at Sydney Olympic Park.

He impressed on debut, so much so that GRM granted him a drive in the Dunlop Series in 2015, setting his path to a full-time Supercars drive in motion.

Golding enjoyed a solid season in 2016 in a GRM-run Commodore, finishing fourth in the series with four podium finishes and two race wins at Phillip Island and Sandown.

He also made his ‘main game’ debut as James Moffat’s co-driver in the #34 GRM Volvo S60 in that year’s Enduro Cup, but his first race at Sandown ended abruptly when a punctured tyre pitched him into the wall at the Esses on the opening lap.

More enduro outings and solo wildcard starts followed in 2017 before Golding stepped up to a full-time seat with GRM in 2018, impressing with a strong drive at Bathurst where an airbox fire denied him a berth in the Top 10 Shootout ahead of an eighth-place finish on race day.

He remained with the team into a challenging 2019 season, but GRM’s exit from Supercars at the end of the year left him without a seat and at a career crossroads.

Golding kept his skills sharp in the emerging S5000 category, winning races in cars developed and run by GRM, and kept his hand in Supercars with impressive endurance drives with Team 18 in 2020 and 2021.

He was scheduled to rejoin Team 18 for the 2022 Repco Bathurst 1000 until a mid-season opportunity came up with PremiAir.

A series of eye-catching performances across the tail of the season secured a full-time drive with the team for 2023 when he again impressed, this time matched against veteran teammate Tim Slade.

THOMAS RANDLE

Monster Castrol Racing Ford Mustang GT

AGE 28

FROM Melbourne, VIC

LIVES Melbourne, VIC FACEBOOK @thomasrandle49 INSTAGRAM @thomasrandle SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

2019

100

2nd

Thomas Randle has stepped up to the challenge of helping lead Tickford Racing amid his third full-time season in the Repco Supercars Championship. The Melburnian came on strong in the second half of 2023 and he remained with the team amid its reduction to two entries for 2024. He has been unlucky not to convert his speed to a breakthrough win this year, battling for the victory in Townsville and at Symmons Plains. Randle was a star in karts and made the move into car racing in 2013 in the Australian Formula Ford Series, winning the 2014 series with five race victories. He finished runner-up in the 2015 CAMS Jayco Australian Formula 4 Championship and third in that year’s national Sports Sedan series in father Dean’s V8-powered Saab.

Randle gathered further open-wheel experience overseas in British Formula 3 (winner of two races at Rockingham and Spa), Formula V8 3.5 Series, Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, Formula Renault 2.0 NEC as well as LMP3 sportscar competition, and victory in New Zealand’s Toyota Racing Series in 2017.

Randle made a one-off appearance in a Rusty French-owned Falcon BF in the 2017 V8 Touring Car Series round at Queensland Raceway and stepped into Super2 with Tickford in 2018.

It proved a breakout year; Randle won the prestigious Mike Kable Young Gun Award after an impressive rookie season that included a pole position and a podium finish in Perth. The following year saw Randle claim his first race and round wins and two more poles on his way to third in points.

Randle also made his ‘main game’ debut with the Ford squad in 2019, driving at Tailem Bend as a wildcard before an Enduro Cup campaign with Lee Holdsworth that included a third place finish in the Sandown 500.

A switch to MW Motorsport for the 2020 Super2 Series paid dividends as Randle romped to the title, finishing either first or second in all seven races of the COVID-shortened season.

The win capped a rollercoaster 12 months for Randle. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in late 2019 and had treatment throughout 2020, completing his last round of chemotherapy on New Year’s Day in 2021.

After signing to co-drive at Brad Jones Racing for 2020, Randle returned to Tickford in 2021 with a pair of top-10 finishes in wildcard ‘main game’ appearances before graduating full-time drive for 2022.

Armed with impressive race pace and improving his qualifying performances throughout the year, Randle’s best chances for breakthrough results in 2022 were hobbled by pit stop and mechanical issues, while he was lucky to escape a nasty startline crash at The Bend without injury.

WILL BROWN

Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 AGE 26 FROM Toowoomba, QLD LIVES Toowoomba, QLD FACEBOOK @willbrown38

@willbrown38

Will Brown stepped into some very big shoes in taking over Shane van Gisbergen’s seat at Triple Eight Race Engineering for 2024, but rose to the occasion and leads the championship after posting four race wins, including the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 with Scott Pye, and podium finishes in 16 of the 20 races so far.

The Toowoomba product moved to the Brisbane-based squad off the back of three seasons with Erebus Motorsport, where he grew from race-winning rookie to a genuine title contender.

Brown made his full-time ‘main game’ debut in 2021 aboard Erebus Motorsport’s flagship #9 entry previously raced by David Reynolds, although his graduation was originally announced by the team way back in November 2019.

He delivered a top-five finish in the third round at Symmons Plains, while the quadruple-header at Sydney Motorsport Park was particularly fruitful. He took his maiden podium finish, then his first pole position, then, at the third SMP round, held off a charging but sparring Triple Eight duo Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup to take a popular and emotional maiden race victory.

Brown capped the year with provisional pole for the Repco Bathurst 1000. His sophomore season contained more downs than ups, highlighted by a strong mid-year run that netted a podium finish at Sandown.

Erebus emerged as frontrunners in the first season of the Gen3 era, with Brown taking several race wins in the first half of the season to take the championship lead in Townsville, before a series of incidents in the second half scuppered his title bid.

Prior to Supercars, Brown first established his pedigree with a pair of junior category title wins in 2016, claiming both the Australian Formula 4 Championship and Toyota 86 Racing Series in the same season.

He moved to the Dunlop Super2 Series in 2017 aboard an Eggleston Motorsport Holden Commodore and made an immediate impact, ending the season with the Mike Kable Young Gun Award.

A mechanical failure cost him a maiden race win at Newcastle in 2017; he had to wait until 2019 to finally break through for a race victory, winning under lights at the Perth SuperNight event.

He finished sixth in the 2018 Dunlop Super2 Series but was 12th in an inconsistent 2019 campaign, before scoring second in 2020 after switching to Image Racing with backing from Erebus.

From 2018 to 2020 he dovetailed his Super2 campaigns with endurance co-drives at Erebus, joining Anton De Pasquale for two years before linking with David Reynolds.

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BROC FEENEY

Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

AGE 22

FROM Gold Coast, QLD

Gold Coast, QLD

@brocfeeney93

CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

2020

Broc Feeney is in the thick of a title battle in just his third full-time season in the Repco Supercars Championship, leading the challengers pursuing teammate Will Brown. He arrives at his home race with more wins this season than any other driver, and fresh off the back of a storming final triplestint that fell just shy of netting him a Repco Bathurst 1000 victory.

Last year, the 21-year-old built on his impressive 2022 rookie campaign with a string of victories that earnt him the tag ‘Mr Sunday’, headed by victory with team boss Jamie Whincup at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500.

While his title challenge faltered with a mechanical failure at the Repco Bathurst 1000, third place overall in his second full-time Supercars season illustrated why Triple Eight recruited him as its star of the future.

A protege of 2014 Bathurst 1000 winner Paul Morris, Feeney built an impressive CV on the road to Supercars. Following in the footsteps of father Paul Feeney, who raced on two wheels in the 1970s and ‘80s, Broc began racing motorbikes at the age of three.

He moved across to karts at age nine and then cars at 15, becoming the youngest race winner in Toyota 86 Racing Series history before making the leap to the Super3 Series. Feeney became the category’s youngest champion, taking a first-up pole position and race win in the opening round ahead of a consistent run to the title.

He graduated to the Dunlop Super2 Series with Tickford Racing in 2020 and finished seventh overall in the COVID-impacted season, qualifying on the front row of the grid for both races at Sydney Motorsport Park in July but crashing out of the Bathurst finale.

A switch to Triple Eight for 2021 paid dividends with Feeney claiming the Super2 title off the back of four wins and four second placings across the 10-race season, along with three pole positions that earnt him the Super2 Pole Champion Award.

It also earnt him a full-time promotion to the ‘main game’ for 2022, taking over the seat of seven-time champion Whincup. Feeney impressed quickly, posting maiden podium finishes in the second round at Symmons Plains and taking a total of 25 top 10 finishes across the season, which ended with his first race victory at the VALO Adelaide 500.

Feeney already had a pair of Bathurst 1000 starts under his belt prior to his full-time graduation. The first came in 2020, pairing with Tickford Racing’s James Courtney to a top 10 finish on his 18th birthday.

He took on lead driver duties one year later in a Triple Eight wildcard entry with Russell Ingall, and dovetailed the high-profile role with his ultimately successful pursuit of the Super2 Series title on the same weekend.

MACAULEY JONES

Pizza Hut Racing

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

AGE 30

FROM Albury, NSW

LIVES Albury, NSW

FACEBOOK @officialmacauleyjones

INSTAGRAM @macauleyjones96

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

DEBUT 2015

ROUNDS 89

RACES 194

BEST FINISH 6th

PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 8th

GOLD COAST STATS

DEBUT 2015

ROUNDS 7

RACES 14

BEST FINISH 6th

PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 19th

2024 CHAMPIONSHIP STATS

RACES 20

BEST FINISH 13th

PODIUMS 0

BEST QUAL 14th

CHAMP POS 22nd

Macauley Jones is in his sixth full-time Repco Supercars Championship season in 2024, all with Brad Jones Racing.

The son of team owner and former driver Brad, Jones is another youngster who rose through karting into Formula Ford, winning the Australian championship’s Rookie of the Year award in 2012.

In 2013 he took a string of five straight race wins on his way to fourth in points, a year that he also raced in New Zealand’s Toyota Racing Series. Jones moved into the Dunlop Super2 Series with BJR midway through 2013 and started the first of four full-time seasons in the class the following year.

He finished 12th, ninth and seventh in his first three campaigns and then suffered a series of misfortunes that cost a breakthrough win and a shot at the title in 2018, including two suspension failures in Townsville and contact from Garry Jacobson at The Chase on the last lap at the Bathurst round.

Although remaining without a race win in the Dunlop Super2 Series itself, Jones did take out the Bathurst 250-kilometre race when it was a non-points event in 2017.

Jones already had 23 races in the Supercars Championship under his belt prior to his rookie season in 2019, spending four years as an Enduro Cup co-driver at BJR. Two of those campaigns came alongside Nick Percat, scoring a best Bathurst result of seventh in 2018 and a best race result of sixth at the Gold Coast 600 just weeks later.

Jones moved into the ‘main game’ with a full-time drive in 2019 when he took over the reins of the Team CoolDrive entry from Tim Blanchard. However, his full-time Supercars career endured a false start at the Adelaide 500 a brake failure-induced crash in practice meant Jones missed the season-opening race. He ended his rookie season 21st in the championship and improved to 19th in his last season in CoolDrive colours in 2020.

Blanchard’s move to start his own squad in 2021 saw Jones move completely under the BJR umbrella, piloting its #96 Coca-Cola sponsored entry and posting a pair of top-10 qualifying efforts at Hidden Valley and Townsville. In 2022, Jones posted the best race finish of his solo-driver Supercars career with sixth place at Albert Park, equalling his enduro best from 2018. Retaining Pizza Hut backing for the first year of the Gen3 era, Jones netted a pair of seventh-placings as his best from a challenging year.

Outside of the cockpit, Jones also hosts the team’s podcast, The Brad Jones Racing Run Down, with BJR team manager Chris Westwood. He also set the Guinness World Record for the doing 870 burpees in one hour in 2019, a mantle he held for almost two years.

Helping business is our trade

All eyes are on Harri Jones as he attempts a feat not seen in Porsche Carrera Cup Australia for over a decade…

Titles are on the line as the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia makes its annual stop on the Gold Coast, with both the Equity-One Pro and SP Tools Pro-Am class championships both within reach of the drivers that have dominated the 2024 season so far.

Harri Jones is well-placed to add a second Carrera Cup title to his 2022 series victory. With two rounds remaining in the season and 181 points up for grabs at each event, Jones’ Hastings Deerings Porsche Centre Melbourne Motorsport entry leads David Russell’s Hire a Hubby TekworkX car by 229 points after he claimed his fourth consecutive round victory at Mount Panorama a fortnight ago.

Should he maintain that margin, Jones will become the first driver since Craig Baird in 2012 to have clinched the title with a round to spare.

The story is similar in Pro-Am which Adrian Flack leads by 345 points. All Pro-Am class drivers are allowed to drop their worst round score for the final standings, but even then, Flack, who’s worst round was Sandown where he scored 150 points and claimed victory on a countback, still leads by more than 190 on corrected scores with two rounds to go.

While both drivers are in commanding positions, the unpredictable nature of the Surfers Paradise street circuit will still see everyone on-edge for an upset this weekend.

A 26-strong field will be out in force to challenge the established contenders, while also fighting for a place on the season podium as battles for second, third and fourth in each class heat up.

Russell leads Jackson Walls by just 19 points, with Dylan O’Keeffe just 38

further back in fourth. Dale Wood sits fifth but is only 125 points out of second position, while Bayley Hall is only 32 behind him and returning to a place where he captured his maiden Carrera Cup race and round victories twelve months ago.

The Gold Coast grid will see the traditional appearance of several graduating stars from the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia series, making their step up to the main game following last weekend’s conclusion of their own series.

Caleb Sumich, who made his debut at Sandown, will return to see out the season while New Zealander Clay Osborne will make his debut this weekend.

On the other end of the scale, threetime SP Tools Pro-Am class champion Stephen Grove will notch up his milestone 200th Carrera Cup race start in Race 1. ■

PORSCHE PAYNTER DIXON CARRERA CUP AUSTRALIA,

Toyota’s junior racing series entered a new era in 2024. WILL DALE previews the finale…

Toyota’s entry level class for young racers has been around for nearly a decade now, and it entered a new era with its 2024 season.

The first obvious change was to the name. Formally, the series is now called the Toyota GAZOO Racing Australia GR Cup, a change that further highlights the manufacturer’s sports and performance brand.

The other obvious change was to the cars themselves. A brand-new model GR86 made its racing debut at the opening

round of the 2024 GR Cup in Townsville in July, with the new machines turning on stunning racing around the country.

A huge field of 33 cars is entered for the finale of the five-round series, which has appeared on the Repco Supercars Championship undercard throughout the second half of this year. It’s an appropriate link, given the class has been a step on the ladder for many current Supercars stars, headlined by Triple Eight duo Will Brown and Broc Feeney.

A new champion will be crowned this weekend on the Gold Coast, with Queensland Bradi Owen leading the way following a dramatic Mount Panorama round earlier this month.

Max Geoghegan, grandson of five-time Supercars Champion Ian, took his maiden

TGRA GR Cup round win in the Repco Bathurst 1000-supporting leg off the back of his maiden race wins, results that bring him to within 46 points of Owen heading to the Gold Coast.

However, Bathurst was less kind to long-time series leader Matt Hillyer, whose savage crash in the final race left the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver’s car too badly damaged to be repaired in time for this weekend.

One element of the category that has remained this year is the presence of two star guest drivers in the field at each round, serving as both benchmarks and mentors for the category’s young chargers. This weekend, Supercars veteran Warren Luff and former Super2 Series victor Declan Fraser pilot the two TGRA-backed cars. ■

TOYOTA GAZOO RACING AUSTRALIA GR CUP, ROUND 5

Small in stature, the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series always turns on a large spectacle! WILL DALE previews the action…

Apack of angry ants or pint-sized racers, call them what you will, but the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series is a must-see part of the support category action at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.

The motorcycle-engined race cars deliver close racing wherever they run but haven’t appeared at the Surfers Paradise street circuit since 2019.

A champion will be crowned this weekend with three drivers entering the Gold Coast round as the leading contenders, with just two points covering the trio.

Reigning champion Joel Heinrich leads the standings heading into the finale, and his #1 Osborn’s Transport Mustang heads the massive 40-car entry that will do battle this weekend.

However, he has just a slender one-point margin over his closest pursuer,

Kody Garland, while third-placed Cody Brewczynski sits just one point further adrift.

It’s Heinrich that has the momentum heading into the final round, having claimed overall honours last time out at Phillip Island last month.

However, its Brewczynski that claimed the final race of that weekend to help set up a thrilling finale.

The Championship class is the only one that is up for grabs; with 25 points up for grabs to the round winner, the Aussie Racing Cars’ other three classes already mathematically clinched.

In Masters Cup, Kent Quinn currently

holds a 30-point advantage over Cody McKay, while Scott Dornan has dominated Gold Cup to lead Riskie Racing’s Joseph Andriske by 36 points.

In Rookie Cup, Mason Harvey leads Corish Motorsport teammate Jordan Freestone by 31 points after an impressive maiden campaign in the category.

A few familiar names will rejoin the grid this weekend, with Kyle Ensbey, Courtney Prince, Steve Jakic category owner Tony Quinn and Scott Taylor all among the 40-car field, while the return of Anthony DiMauro is sure to shake up the established frontrunners, just as he has done at earlier rounds this season. ■

“A CHAMPION WILL BE CROWNED ON THE GOLD COAST THIS WEEKEND WITH JUST TWO POINTS COVERING THE THREE LEADING CONTENDERS...”

BATTERY WORLD AUSSIE RACING CARS SUPER SERIES, ROUND 7

Aclosetitlecontest continuesintheV8 SuperUtesasWILLDALE previewstheaction…

The battle for the Tyrepower V8 SuperUte Series title heads to Surfers Paradise this weekend for the fifth and penultimate round of its 2024 season, supporting the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.

The title race was turned on its head by a bruising outing supporting the Repco Bathurst 1000 earlier this month, a weekend that delivered a large blow to Adam Marjoram’s hopes of netting a maiden V8 SuperUte crown. After heading into the weekend with a healthy 24-point lead over Team Motion Racing teammate Aaron Borg, a difficult round –headlined by a non-finish in

Race 3 – leaves him 91 points adrift with just two rounds remaining.

In contrast, Borg took three race wins and the round overall to set himself up for a strong run at a fourth-straight V8 SuperUte title. However, the close concrete walls on the Gold Coast mean the title battle could easily swing back Marjoram’s way in a moment.

The title-leading duo head the 23-car entry list, filled by a host of racers out to knock them off.

Cameron Crick surged to third in the standings at Bathurst and is now solely focused on his V8 SuperUte campaign after

pulling double-duty at the Mountain with a Supercars co-drive alongside Cameron Crick at Matt Stone Racing.

The battle for fourth in the standings has tightened up considerably with just 11 points separating David Sieders, rookie Jayden Wanzek and series regular Cody Brewczynski, the latter finishing second overall behind Borg at the Bathurst.

The Tyrepower V8 SuperUte Series has just one round remaining after this weekend, with the 2024 season wrapping up at the VAILO Adelaide 500 in November. ■

Supercars has a long history of racing on the Gold Coast streets, with 2024 marking the 30th anniversary of its first appearance supporting the Indy Car Grand Prix in 1994. This is from the 1998 race weekend, with privateer racer Steve Reed passing the spectators – although at least one punter is more focused on their tan!

PHOTOGRAPHY BY Dirk Klynsmith, AN1 Images

OFFICIALS OF THE EVENT

NATIONAL SPORTING AUTHORITY

Motorsport Australia

PROMOTER / ORGANISER

Supercars Australia Pty Ltd

ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Phil Shaw, Matt Ramsden, Nigel Faull, Kimberly Hughes

SUPERCARS

OFFICIALS

VCS STEWARDS

Christopher McMahon (Chair), Trevor Neumann, Bradley Tubb

VCS RACE DIRECTOR

James Taylor

VCS DEPUTY RACE DIRECTORS

David Mori, David Stuart

CLERK OF THE COURSE

Nigel Faull

SECRETARY OF THE EVENT

Kimberly Hughes

MEDICAL DELEGATE

Dr Carl Le

HEAD OF MOTORSPORT

Tim Edwards

STARTER

James Delzoppo

DRIVING STANDARDS ADVISOR

Craig Baird

TIMING CO-ORDINATOR

Ian Leech

CHIEF TIMEKEEPER (SUPERCARS)

Tiffany Leech

RECOVERY CO-ORDINATOR

Alistair Walker

SAFETY CAR DRIVER

Jason Routley

VOLUNTEERS

SAFETY CAR COMMUNICATOR

Berenice Stratton

MEDIA MANAGER

Paul Glover

SUPPORT EVENT OFFICIALS

SUPPORT CATEGORY STEWARDS

Kevin Hunter (Chair), Matthew Halpin, Glenn Pincott

DEPUTY CLERK OF THE COURSE

Damien Mitchell

DEPUTY SECRETARY OF THE EVENT

Aidan Siegel

ASSISSTANT CLERKS OF THE COURSE

Paul Baxter, Craig Bourke

EMERGENCY COORDINATOR

Matt Johnston

CHIEF COMMUNICATOR

Susie Brook

COMMUNICATORS

Peter Durkin, Andrew Mutton, Leigh Evans

CHIEF TIMEKEEPER

Nick Perkins

COURSE CAR MARSHALS

Paul Howlett, Marty Smith

SUPPORT SAFETY CAR DRIVER

Brad Stratton

SUPPORT SAFETY CAR OBSERVER

Berenice Stratton

CHIEF STARTER

Zachary Dawes

ASSISTANT STARTERS

Julie Hockey, Steven Magnussen

CHIEF SCRUTINEER

Athol Wilcox

DEPUTY CHIEF SCRUTINEER

Scott Swarbrick

CHIEF MARSHAL

Cosmin Ghebosu

DEPUTY CHIEF MARSHAL

Corey Watts

ASSISTANT CHIEF MARSHAL

Daniel Crowe

CHIEF OF RECOVERY

Brad Moras

CHIEF FIRE MARSHAL

Chanelle Fryer

DEPUTY CHIEF FIRE MARSHAL

Bruce Nissen

SENIOR PIT LANE FIRE MARSHAL

Pat McGaw

CHIEF PIT LANE & GRID MARSHAL

Mark Buckingham

DEPUTY CHIEF PIT LANE MARSHAL

Trevor Allan

DEPUTY CHIEF GRID MARSHAL

Adrian Bond

CHIEF PADDOCK MARSHAL

Greg Waller

DEPUTY CHIEF PADDOCK MARSHAL

Ton O’Connor

CHIEF SUPPLY

Ian Lamb

CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER

Dr Karyn Lun

MEDICAL COORDINATOR

Peter Castledine

SECTOR MARSHALS

Matt Blomfield, Corey Dyer, Kate Eppelstun, Karl Fleming, Adrian Fuller, Toni Fuller, Breannah Ghebosu, Simon Gore, Ninad Kavi, Stephen King, Tracy King, Andrew Lake, Christos Licina, Peter Richardson, Phil Robson, Peter Ryland, Peter Southwell, Peter Stevens, Campbell Watt, Greg Whan, Leon Wort, Aden Zealley, Stephen Navaratnam