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.

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
Hyper Racer	2	Dean Crooke	2
Summons Racing	4	Aaron Imbach	1–2
Omnitude Adventures	5	Christopher Carydias	1–2
Privateer	11	Stephen Donnellan	1–2
Summons Racing	12	Rob Summons	2
Pakelo Lubricants Carbon Racing	14	Jack Lewis	1–2
Pakelo Lubricants Carbon Racing	38	Zachary Catlin	1–2
Stoke Foiling	19	Hamish Leighton	1–2
Peter Nowlan	23	Peter Nowlan	2
Controltech Solutions	24	Brenton Davey	1–2
Above All Concrete	25	Josh Gardiner	1
Lucas Stasi Racing	34	Lucas Stasi	1–2
Montgomery Haulage / Ringwood Kart Centre	63	Harry Strik	1–2
Ausnets	68	Terry Knowles	1–2
Spectre Property	74	Bradley Smith	1–2
Justin Yuen Motorsport	77	Justin Yuen	1–2
LeMans Entertainment	82	Rocco Spinley	1–2
Quad Lock	88	Chris Peters	1–2
RAW Australia Roofing	95	Rory McKercher	1
Sources: ^[4]^[5]

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 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	20–21 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	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
	R2
	R3
	R4
4	R1	Sydney Motorsport Park
	R2
	R3
	R4
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.^[6]

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.^[7]

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.^[8]

Drivers' championship

Pos	Driver	BEN				CAL1				ONE				SYD				WIN				CAL2				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	3³	2	2	1	2⁴	1	1	1																	466
2	Zachary Catlin	4⁵	9	Ret	6	3²	5	4	5																	305
3	Lucas Stasi	6⁶	4	WD	WD	1¹	2	8	4																	301
4	Brenton Davey	9¹²	6	9	Ret	4³	3	2	3																	295
5	Jack Lewis	10⁸	10	4	8	9⁶	6	6	8																	288
6	Rocco Spinley	11¹⁰	7	Ret	4	7⁷	4	3	2																	285
7	Hamish Leighton	7⁷	12	6	2	10¹²	9	10	10																	275
8	Christopher Carydias	13¹³	11	Ret	9	12¹⁰	8	9	7																	211
9	Damon Sterling	1²	1	1	Ret																					204
10	Justin Yuen	5⁴	3	3	3	WD	WD	WD	WD																	183
11	Chris Peters	15¹⁵	13	5	Ret	Ret⁹	7	5	14																	182
12	Stephen Donnellan	14¹¹	Ret	8	7	DNS	13	11	13																	163
13	Harry Strik	2¹	5	Ret	5	WD	WD	WD	WD																	154
14	Terry Knowles	12¹⁴	WD	WD	WD	8¹¹	11	12	11																	143
15	Josh Gardiner	8⁹	8	7	Ret																					107
16	Rob Summons					11¹³	12	13	12																	101
17	Peter Nowlan					DNS	10	7	9																	92
18	Dean Crooke					5⁸	Ret	Ret	6																	85
19	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	R1	R2	R3	R4	R1	R2	R3	R4	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
Pos	Driver	BEN				CAL1				ONE				SYD				WIN				CAL2				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

¹ ^{2 ... 15} – points-paying qualifying positions

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