Supercars Championship: Dunlop Sydney 500: Preview

Credit: SpeedcafeThe 2026 season is just days away from kicking off, with additional Destination NSW pre-season testing taking place at Sydney Motorsport Park.

A new era takes place for three teams on the grid, with new manufacturers and, old ones, taking up previous partnerships; Walkinshaw TWG Racing, becoming the homologation team for Toyota Gazoo Racing, supplying Brad Jones Racing with a brand new avenue, while Triple Eight Race Engineering have re-paired with Ford after sixteen years. 

This led Team 18 to becoming the homologation team for Camaro, taking over Triple Eight’s previous role as they themselves become Ford’s homologation team - booting out DJR’s title of lead Ford team.

Grid shakeup

While teams have been busy preparing for the season opener this weekend, new announcements for the enduro season have been confirmed with exciting driver pairings.

A large interest point for fans is the news of Roland Dane entering as PremiAir racing’s team principal, with the team bringing on two fast young drivers - Jayden Ojeda and Declan Fraser. 

Just this week, it was announced that Bayley Hall would be joining Craig Lowndes at Team 18 for the enduro season, as a wildcard entry, bringing a young-gun into the sports top level limelight. 

The majority of the grid has remained the same, however the faces of James Courtney, Nick Percat, and Will Davidson will be missing from the paddock after retiring at the end of the 2025 season. 

An exciting full-time newcomer includes Zach Bates who will race alongside veteran teammate Jack Le Brocq at Matt Stone Racing, while Rylan Gray makes his debut alongside 2023 supercars champion Brodie Kostecki at Dick Johnson Racing. 

At Erebus, Jobe Stewart steps into his very own debut, racing alongside Cooper Murray, with Jackson Walls making his debut in SCT Motorsport. 

Existing drivers have been seen making changes as well with Le Brocq coming from Erebus and James Golding moving to Blanchard Racing Team after a three and a half year stint with PremiAir Racing.

Other changes have been made official in the Supercars paddock, outside of the drivers, impacting the inner workings of the teams. 

Internal moves worth mentioning include: Carly Hammersley as Chief Operating Office at Erebus, Jack Belotti as Head of Engineering and Paul Forgie as Team Manager at Matt Stone Racing, and Oli Boone steps up from a data engineering role at PremiAir with Ludo Lacroix joining part-time in a technical consultancy role.

Full throttle in Sydney

Credit: Supercars

Chaz Mostert goes into Sydney as the reigning supercars champion, with a hungry Broc Feeney rearing to go, chasing the title once again - each with new race machinery.

Five new rookies enter alongside nineteen long-term veterans, champions, and race winners; new blood that’s ready to make a statement, making it the youngest grid and the most anticipated season in the sport’s history. 

Sydney Motorsport Park is a permanent track in the Supercars calendar, at an exhilarating 3.905km with a lap record held by previous three-time champion Scott McLaughlin in 2020 (1:27.7428). 

The Dunlop Sydney 500 is a 200km race distance with an estimate for 51 laps with ample opportunity for insane overtakes and fabulous track fights.

Free Fan Friday kicks off the race weekend with racing action starting on 12th of February 2026.