Supercars Championship 2026: Ipswich Super 440 Preview
- Tayla Purves
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
The Sprint Cup Finale kicks off this weekend for the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship, the paperclip circuit sure to bring a thrilling end to the Sprint Series.
Queensland Raceway at Willowbank, Ipswich will be the home of the paddock this weekend, starting tomorrow, 21st of August.
Ipswich is an Australian Motorsport Hub, the paperclip circuit consisting of a speed driven track length of 3.126km; it’s a tight and flat race track containing six turns with minimal elevation.
Ever changing ambient temperatures cause chaos for engineers and their strategies; Queensland Raceway a challenge for finding the right set up and difficult for finding the sweet spot for tyre management.
This weekend marks a pivotal moment in the overall Championship and could be a tell-tale for who could come out on top later this year. On Sunday, the Sprint Cup Finale winner will be confirmed, enabling the top driver to get an automatic head start on the Finals Series, the Sprint Cup Series winning driver will gain 25 bonus points.
The leaderboard for the Sprint Cup Series is a tight title fight heading into Round 9. Matthew Payne currently leads the pack on 1,950 points, 118 points ahead of Broc Feeney. In third place in the standings is Cameron Waters, behind by 277 points.
Most standard Supercars Championship weekends have an estimated 300 points up for grabs, meaning this weekend in Ipswich is any man’s win.
Previous race winners at Queensland Raceway included an all Red Bull Ampol Racing lockout in 2025, Feeney winning two of the three races last season, with teammate Will Brown claiming victory in one.
Some teams will have an advantage going into this weekend, with Shell V Power Racing, Red Bull Ampol Racing, Premier Racing, and Matt Stone Racing each calling Queensland Raceway home - majority of their testing taking place here throughout the off-season.
Three races will take place over the weekend; two on Saturday and one on Sunday, Race 28 will be the sole race to have a Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout prior to the green flag.
In the last few weeks from Round 8, controversy broke out in the headlines after an appeal was launched. Supercars lost their appeal of stewards not penalising Kai Allen, driver of the No.26 Penrite Racing Mustang, with an alleged minimum tyre pressure breach. On the 17th of August, this was dismissed in Court and Allen was able to keep his fifth place finish in Perth’s Race 25.
Allen came under investigation after two tyres fell under the minimum pressure threshold at the end of Sunday's Perth 80-lap race. Supercars have since issued clarification ahead of this weekend regarding their minimum tyre pressure rules.
Heading into this weekend, Allen sits fifth in the Repco Sprint Cup Series on 1,565 points with the high profile Court hearing now behind him.
Practice 1 of the weekend begins tomorrow afternoon at 2:40pm AEST (5:40am BST).
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