Ready for the Motorsport Season: Updates and Exciting Changes for 2025

Are we ready for the motorsport season to begin? For some of us who watch motorsports closely, it has already started with some endurance racing taking place in January, like the Dakar, Daytona 24hr, and the Bathurst 12hr. NASCAR kicked off their season with the pre-season Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray, and IndyCar is getting ready to kick things into gear for 2025 on March 2nd with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

For local motorsports enthusiasts, the Supercars Championship will hold its opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park on the weekend of February 20th-23rd. As always in Supercars, the silly season seems to run all year round, with drivers’ contracts ending and talks between them and other teams held behind closed doors, ready to announce who will drive what car in the next season. This year, a whole lot of drivers are set to make debuts in different teams. Here is a list if you’re looking for a driver in particular and cannot work out who they are driving for this year.

The biggest move was Brodie Kostecki, the 2023 champion, moving from Erebus Motorsport to Dick Johnson Racing. He takes with him not only his engineer but also convinced DJR to purchase a new chassis from Erebus. It should be interesting to see how they get his Mustang to win races and bring DJR back to the podium this season.

Anton De Pasquale has moved from DJR to Team 18, replacing the outgoing Mark “Frosty” Winterbottom. Anton has already had a chance to turn some laps in a Team 18 Chev Camaro during some tire testing at the Bathurst 12hr.

Richie Stanaway moved from the Grove Racing team to PremiAir Racing, where he will get another full-time shot at the championship. Richie has unique driving ability and is looking for that team who can help him unlock that configuration that makes him a very good racer.

This year, they welcome Kia Allen and Cooper Murray to the grid. Kia will be racing with the Grove Racing Penrite Racing Mustangs, and Cooper Murray is set to replace the outgoing Brodie Kostecki at Erebus Motorsport. Both these guys may be considered rookies this year, but by no means are they new to hard racing. Watch out for these guys as they get their elbows out to prove they earned their spot in the main game.

With news released live from the USA launch of Ford Performance on January 31st, I watched as Jamie Whincup from Triple 8 Race Engineering, or as most people know them, the Red Bull Ampol Racing team, announced that T8 will be back driving Fords from 2026. They have landed a great deal from the Ford Performance squad and will head up the homologation of the Gen 3 Mustang. With Walkinshaw already developing the Toyota Supra for them, and most likely Team 18 (not announced), this will maintain that there are still 10 Mustangs on the grid for 2026. There are quite a few unhappy fans voicing their feelings all over social media; they must have forgotten that Triple 8 came from being a Ford squad before announcing in 2009 their switch to General Motors. I guess we didn’t really use our socials like we do now back then. I say welcome back to the blue oval family, and I hope they can carry on their success. They are definitely the benchmark of performing teams in the championship.

Following the first round of Supercars will be the Melbourne Grand Prix, which kicks the Formula 1 season into life. With support categories in place like Supercars and Formula 2, Albert Park will be alive with action from March 13th-16th. This will be an interesting season of Formula 1 with Liam Lawson being elevated to the Oracle Red Bull Racing Team to drive alongside champion driver Max Verstappen, and with a second Aussie in Jack Doohan, yes, that is Mick Doohan’s son, racing at the top level of motorsport with Alpine.

I would also like to acknowledge Dave Casey’s return to full-time racing this year in the V8 Superute series. Dave, a local Rocky resident, will be racing the 782 Motors Mitsubishi Triton and is sure to get his elbows out as that category starts at Sydney Motorsport Park the same weekend as the Supercars.

So again, who is ready for the racing season to begin?