2026 Australian Drivers' Championship

2026 Australian Drivers' Championship

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The 2026 Hankook Australian Drivers' Championship is a motor racing championship in Australia. It is the third running of the championship created in 2024 when its sanctioning body, the Australian Auto Sport Alliance, secured the rights to the Australian Drivers' Championship title dating back to 1957. The series is a spec series using the open-wheel Hyper Racer X1.

The 2026 season started on 13 March at The Bend Motorsport Park and will be run over six race weekends.

Ironclad ID driver Damon Sterling entered the season as the reigning champion.

Teams and drivers

All drivers compete with a Hyper Racer X1 car powered by a Suzuki Hayabusa engine on Hankook tires. All teams and drivers are Australian-registered.

Team No. Driver Rounds Ironclad ID 1 Damon Sterling 1 Hyper Racer 2 Dean Crooke 2–4 Summons Racing 4 Aaron Imbach 1–2 12 Rob Summons 2 Omnitude Adventures 5 Christopher Carydias 1–4 Privateer 11 Stephen Donnellan 1–4 Pakelo Lubricants Carbon Racing 14 Jack Lewis 1–4 37 Kalen Chin 3–4 38 Zachary Catlin 1–4 Stoke Foiling 19 Hamish Leighton 1–2 Peter Nowlan 23 Peter Nowlan 2–3 Controltech Solutions 24 Brenton Davey 1–4 Above All Concrete 25 Josh Gardiner 1, 3–4 Driveght.com.au/RPM86 33 Ashwin Dyall 3–4 Lucas Stasi Racing 34 Lucas Stasi 1–4 SimworX Simulators 48 Luke Klaver 4 Montgomery Haulage / Ringwood Kart Centre 63 Harry Strik 1–4 Ausnets 68 Terry Knowles 1–2, 4 Spectre Property 74 Bradley Smith 1–4 Justin Yuen Motorsport 77 Justin Yuen 1–4 LeMans Entertainment 82 Rocco Spinley 1–4 Quad Lock 88 Chris Peters 1–2, 4 RAW Australia Roofing 95 Rory McKercher 1, 3 Sources:

Calendar

The 2026 calendar was first announced on 8 January 2026, with the date and venue of the final round still to be confirmed.

Round		Circuit	Date	Support Bill	Map of circuit locations
1	R1	The Bend Motorsport Park, Tailem Bend	13 March	TA2 Muscle Car Series Formula RX8 Legend Car Australia Asphalt Series Australian Formula Ford Championship Production Sports Car Racing Victoria Innovation Race Cars Series	Sydney Winton The Bend Calder Park Goulburn
	R2		14 March
	R3
	R4
2	R1	Calder Park Raceway, Melbourne	18 April	BMW Driver's Cup Production Sports Car Racing Victoria Victorian Excel Racing Championship Series Victorian Super TT Championship Victorian V8 Series
	R2		19 April
	R3
	R4
3	R1	One Raceway, Goulburn	20 June	Formula RX8 Legend Car Australia Asphalt Series Stock Cars Australia National Series AASA Tin Tops Series
	R2
	R3		21 June
	R4
	R5
4	R1	Sydney Motorsport Park, Eastern Creek	17 July	Legend Car Australia Asphalt Series Australian Production Car Series Australian Formula Ford Championship Production Sports Car Racing Victoria Formula RX8 TA2 Muscle Car Series
	R2
	R3		18 July
	R4
5	R1	Winton Motor Raceway, Winton	3–4 October	Victorian Formula Vee Championship Victorian Superkart Championship Victorian Super TT Championship
	R2
	R3
	R4
6	R1	Calder Park Raceway, Melbourne	13–15 November	AASA National Formula Ford Championship Formula RX8 Innovation Race Cars Series Legend Car Australia Asphalt Series Stock Cars Australia National Series TA2 Muscle Car Series
	R2
	R3
	R4

Race results

Round		Circuit	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	R1	The Bend Motorsport Park	Harry Strik	Harry Strik	Damon Sterling	Ironclad ID
	R2			Harry Strik	Damon Sterling	Ironclad ID
	R3			Harry Strik	Damon Sterling	Ironclad ID
	R4			Harry Strik	Bradley Smith	Spectre Property
2	R1	Calder Park Raceway	Lucas Stasi	Bradley Smith	Lucas Stasi	Lucas Stasi Racing
	R2			Rocco Spinley	Bradley Smith	Spectre Property
	R3			Lucas Stasi	Bradley Smith	Spectre Property
	R4			Zachary Catlin	Bradley Smith	Spectre Property
3	R1	One Raceway	Harry Strik	Harry Strik	Harry Strik	Montgomery Haulage / Ringwood Kart Centre
	R2			Harry Strik	Harry Strik	Montgomery Haulage / Ringwood Kart Centre
	R3			Harry Strik	Harry Strik	Montgomery Haulage / Ringwood Kart Centre
	R4			Harry Strik	Harry Strik	Montgomery Haulage / Ringwood Kart Centre
	R5			Brenton Davey	Zachary Catlin	Pakelo Lubricants Carbon Racing
4	R1	Sydney Motorsport Park	Harry Strik	Kalen Chin	Kalen Chin	Pakelo Lubricants Carbon Racing
	R2			Kalen Chin	Kalen Chin	Pakelo Lubricants Carbon Racing
	R3			Rocco Spinley	Lucas Stasi	Lucas Stasi Racing
	R4			Kalen Chin	Harry Strik	Montgomery Haulage / Ringwood Kart Centre
5	R1	Winton Motor Raceway
	R2
	R3
	R4
6	R1	Calder Park Raceway
	R2
	R3
	R4

Season report

The third AASA-sanctioned Australian Drivers' Championship began in March at The Bend Motorsport Park with pole position for Harry Strik. Ironclad ID's reigning champion Damon Sterling got the better start to the first race, however, and led from start to finish, with Strik taking second ahead of Spectre Property's Bradley Smith. Sterling won once again in race two as Strik ran off track and fell to fifth, conceding the podium to Smith and Justin Yuen. Race three saw the same top three as race two, before Sterling retired after his engine blew in race four. That allowed Smith to take the final win of the weekend ahead of Hamish Leighton and Yuen, while he also took a narrow lead in the championship.

The second round was held at Calder Park Raceway, where privateer Lucas Stasi took pole position in qualifying ahead of Controltech Solutions' Brenton Davey. Davey quickly slipped back in the first race, allowing Stasi to pull away and win while Smith and Carbon Racing's Zachary Catlin debated second. Race two saw Stasi and Smith duel over the win, with Smith coming out ahead. Smith then collected two more victories, one after colliding with Stasi in race three, while Davey and LeMans Entertainment's Rocco Spinley collected a third and a second place each. With pre-event second-placed driver Sterling absent, Smith was therefore able to greatly expand his points standings over Catlin and Stasi.

Round three at One Raceway held five races instead of the usual four, and Strik took pole position in qualifying for the first one. Stasi overtook him in the middle of the first race, but Strik was able to get back past him to take his maiden victory. Hyper Racer's Dean Crooke took third, before Strik and Stasi doubled up in race two to finish first and second again. This time, it was points leader Smith who took the final podium spot. Race three saw another unchallenged victory for Strik, with Stasi continuing his streak in second and Crooke also returning to the podium. Race four also brought no change to the top two positions as series rookie Rocco Spinley took third for LeMans Entertainment. A spin and a retirement for Strik in the final race finally handed victory to another driver, as Catlin took it ahead of Stasi, who was now second in the standings, 120 points behind Smith.

Championship standings

Scoring system

Points are awarded as follows:

Qualifying position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th
Qualifying points	30	24	21	19	17	15	13	11	9	8	7	6	5	4	3

Race position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th
Race points	60	48	42	40	38	36	34	32	30	28	26	24	22	20	18
Race position	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23rd	24th	25th	26th	27th	28th	29th	30th
Race points	16	14	12	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	1	1

The worst weekend points-wise for each driver will be dropped to form the final score.

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver BEN CAL1 ONE SYD WIN CAL2 Pts R1 R2 R3 R4 R1 R2 R3 R4 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R1 R2 R3 R4 R1 R2 R3 R4 R1 R2 R3 R4 1 Lucas Stasi 66 4 WD WD 11 2 8 4 22 2 2 2 2 22 2 1 Ret 754 2 Bradley Smith 33 2 2 1 24 1 1 1 43 3 5 4 5 WD WD WD WD 685 3 Zachary Catlin 45 9 Ret 6 32 5 4 5 78 6 7 6 1 83 11 6 5 669 4 Rocco Spinley 1110 7 Ret 4 77 4 3 2 Ret6 7 4 3 8 37 8 5 4 613 5 Harry Strik 21 5 Ret 5 WD WD WD WD 11 1 1 1 Ret 111 12 4 1 604 6 Jack Lewis 108 10 4 8 96 6 6 8 910 10 13 11 11 411 4 10 10 571 7 Brenton Davey 912 6 9 Ret 43 3 2 3 109 11 8 8 7 98 9 8 Ret 559 8 Dean Crooke 58 Ret Ret 6 34 4 3 5 3 55 5 3 2 491 9 Stephen Donnellan 1411 Ret 8 7 DNS 13 11 13 1311 12 10 13 9 612 6 9 7 438 10 Kalen Chin 65 9 6 7 4 14 1 2 3 422 11 Justin Yuen 54 3 3 3 WD WD WD WD 812 8 9 10 Ret DNS6 7 7 12 418 12 Josh Gardiner 89 8 7 Ret 57 5 Ret 9 6 1010 10 11 6 388 13 Christopher Carydias 1313 11 Ret 9 1210 8 9 7 1213 13 12 Ret Ret 1314 14 14 11 378 14 Chris Peters 1515 13 5 Ret Ret9 7 5 14 1413 13 12 8 285 15 Hamish Leighton 77 12 6 2 1012 9 10 10 275 16 Damon Sterling 12 1 1 Ret 204 17 Peter Nowlan DNS 10 7 9 DNS DNS 11 14 10 166 18 Ashwin Dyall 1114 Ret 14 12 12 1215 15 13 Ret 165 19 Terry Knowles 1214 WD WD WD 811 11 12 11 WD WD WD WD 143 20 Luke Klaver 79 3 15 9 133 21 Rob Summons 1113 12 13 12 101 22 Aaron Imbach WD WD WD WD 65 14 Ret Ret 73 — Rory McKercher WD WD WD WD 0 Pos Driver R1 R2 R3 R4 R1 R2 R3 R4 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R1 R2 R3 R4 R1 R2 R3 R4 R1 R2 R3 R4 Pts BEN CAL1 ONE SYD WIN CAL2

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points classification Blue Non-points classification Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired, not classified (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap 1 2 ... 15 – points-paying qualifying positions † – Driver did not finish the race, but was classified

External links

• Australian Drivers Championship