2026 Australian Drivers' Championship

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.^[1] 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.^[2]

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. Drivers aged 40 and above are able to take part in the Masters' Australian Drivers’ Championship.^[3] All teams and drivers are Australian-registered.

Team	No.	Driver	Rounds
Ironclad ID	1	Damon Sterling	1
Summons Racing	4	Aaron Imbach	1
Omnitude Adventures	5	Christopher Carydias	1
Privateer	11	Stephen Donnellan	1
Pakelo Lubricants Carbon Racing	14	Jack Lewis	1
Pakelo Lubricants Carbon Racing	38	Zachary Catlin	1
Stoke Foiling	19	Hamish Leighton	1
Controltech Solutions	24	Brenton Davey	1
Above All Concrete	25	Josh Gardiner	1
Lucas Stasi Racing	34	Lucas Stasi	1
Montgomery Haulage / Ringwood Kart Centre	63	Harry Strik	1
Ausnets	68	Terry Knowles	1
Spectre Property	74	Bradley Smith	1
Justin Yuen Motorsport	77	Justin Yuen	1
LeMans Entertainment	82	Rocco Spinley	1
Quad Lock	88	Chris Peters	1
RAW Australia Roofing	95	Rory McKercher	1
Source: ^[4]

Icon	Legend
M	Master

Calendar

The 2026 calendar was first announced on 8 January 2026, with the date and venue of the final round still to be confirmed.^[2]

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	18–19 April	BMW Driver's Cup Production Sports Car Racing Victoria Victorian Excel Racing Championship Series Victorian Super TT Championship Victorian V8 Series
	R2
	R3
	R4
3	R1	One Raceway, Goulburn	20–21 June	Formula RX8 Legend Car Australia Asphalt Series Stock Cars Australia National Series AASA Tin Tops Series
	R2
	R3
	R4
4	R1	Sydney Motorsport Park, Eastern Creek	17–18 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
	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	TBA	TBA
	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
	R2
	R3
	R4
3	R1	One Raceway
	R2
	R3
	R4
4	R1	Sydney Motorsport Park
	R2
	R3
	R4
5	R1	Winton Motor Raceway
	R2
	R3
	R4
6	R1	TBA
	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.^[5]

Championship standings

Scoring system

Points are awarded as follows:

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th
Points	25	20	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2

The worst weekend points-wise for each driver will be dropped to form the final score.^[6]

Drivers' championship

Pos	Driver	BEN				CAL				ONE				SYD				WIN				TBA				Pts
Pos	Driver	R1	R2	R3	R4	R1	R2	R3	R4	R1	R2	R3	R4	R1	R2	R3	R4	R1	R2	R3	R4	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
1	Bradley Smith	3	2	2	1																					83
2	Damon Sterling	1	1	1	Ret																					75
3	Justin Yuen	5	3	3	3																					70
4	Harry Strik	2	5	11†	5																					62
5	Hamish Leighton	7	12	6	2																					58
6	Rocco Spinley	11	7	10†	4																					52
7	Jack Lewis	10	10	4	8																					52
8	Brenton Davey	9	6	9	10†																					50
9	Josh Gardiner	8	8	7	11†																					50
10	Zachary Catlin	4	9	Ret	6																					44
11	Stephen Donnellan	14	14†	8	7																					41
12	Lucas Stasi	6	4	WD	WD																					32
13	Chris Peters	15	13	5	Ret																					30
14	Christopher Carydias	13	11	Ret	9																					30
15	Terry Knowles	12	WD	WD	WD																					9
—	Aaron Imbach	WD	WD	WD	WD																					0
—	Rory McKercher	WD	WD	WD	WD																					0
Pos	Driver	R1	R2	R3	R4	R1	R2	R3	R4	R1	R2	R3	R4	R1	R2	R3	R4	R1	R2	R3	R4	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
Pos	Driver	BEN				CAL				ONE				SYD				WIN				TBA				Pts

Colour	Result
Gold	Winner
Silver	Second place
Bronze	Third place
Green	Points classification
Blue	Non-points classification
Blue	Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple	Retired, not classified (Ret)
Red	Did not qualify (DNQ)
Red	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

† – Driver did not finish the race,
but was classified

References

^ Williams, Bruce (2 March 2024). "Motorsport Australia sanctioning rival claims prestigious Australian Drivers Championship title". AutoAction. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
^ ^a ^b "Australian Drivers' Championship on Instagram: '📆 2026 Calendar Loading... 🏎🏁'". Instagram. 8 January 2026. Retrieved 12 January 2026.
^ "2025 Australian Drivers' Championship Rules and Regulations". 2025. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
^ "2026 RD1 - The Bend Mar 13-15". Hi-Tec Oils Super Series. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
^ Miles, Thomas (16 March 2026). "Hi-Tec Oils Super Series opener delivers". AutoAction. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
^ "2026 Australian Drivers' Championship - Rules and Technical Regulations" (PDF). Australian Drivers' Championship. Retrieved 14 January 2026.

External links

Australian Drivers Championship

[1] Williams, Bruce (2 March 2024). "Motorsport Australia sanctioning rival claims prestigious Australian Drivers Championship title". AutoAction. Retrieved 10 January 2025.

[:0-2] "Australian Drivers' Championship on Instagram: '📆 2026 Calendar Loading... 🏎🏁'". Instagram. 8 January 2026. Retrieved 12 January 2026.

[3] "2025 Australian Drivers' Championship Rules and Regulations". 2025. Retrieved 10 January 2025.

[4] "2026 RD1 - The Bend Mar 13-15". Hi-Tec Oils Super Series. Retrieved 6 March 2026.

[5] Miles, Thomas (16 March 2026). "Hi-Tec Oils Super Series opener delivers". AutoAction. Retrieved 20 March 2026.

[6] "2026 Australian Drivers' Championship - Rules and Technical Regulations" (PDF). Australian Drivers' Championship. Retrieved 14 January 2026.

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