Erebus eyes Supercars milestone in Tasmania

Erebus Motorsport has made a fast start to the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship, and it has taken the team towards a key milestone.

The Melbourne team has flown out of the blocks, and leads the drivers’ and teams’ championships healthily after three rounds.

Brodie Kostecki has taken two wins and six podiums, with Will Brown scoring a win and three podiums.

Between them, Kostecki and Brown have scored 12 podiums, taking Erebus’ tally to 48 — just two short of 50 Supercars podiums.

The team has four double podiums in nine starts, two coming in Melbourne, and two in Perth — one of which was the team’s first one-two finish.

Erebus needs just two more podiums to reach 50 in Supercars, with a quarter of those 48 trophies taken this season.

The team’s first podium was also its first victory, with Lee Holdsworth scoring the first Mercedes-AMG victory in Supercars at Winton in 2014.

Just five other teams on the grid — Triple Eight Race Engineering, Dick Johnson Racing, Tickford Racing, Walkinshaw Andretti United and Brad Jones Racing — have passed the 50 mark.

Podium and win No. 1: Holdsworth, Winton 2014

Penrite Racing, which began life as Kelly Racing in 2009, is just behind Erebus on 42 podiums, with David Reynolds adding two so far this season.

Six teams have already scored podiums in 2023: Erebus (12), Triple Eight (eight), Tickford, WAU and Penrite Racing (two), and BJR (one).

That leaves Team 18, Matt Stone Racing, Nulon Racing and CoolDrive Racing — the latter three are all chasing their first ever podiums.

They’ve all come close — Todd Hazelwood equalled the Blanchard team's best result of fourth in Perth, with James Golding netting a team-best fourth in Newcastle for Nulon Racing.

Jack Le Brocq has five top 10s in nine starts, including equalling MSR’s best result of fifth in the Albert Park finale.

The only team yet to strike a major blow in 2023 is Team 18, which has form in Tasmania. Back in 2019, Mark Winterbottom scored the team’s first Supercars pole.

Triple Eight could yet become the first team to score 500 Supercars podiums in 2023, with 54 podiums still on offer this season.

Nine trophies will be up for grabs at this weekend’s NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.

Supercars track action begins on Saturday, headlined by the first 42-lap sprint, Race 10, on Saturday afternoon.

Supercars podiums by active teams*

487: Triple Eight Race Engineering310: Dick Johnson Racing280: Tickford Racing279: Walkinshaw Andretti United74: Brad Jones Racing48: Erebus Motorsport42: Penrite Racing4: Team 180: Matt Stone Racing, PremiAir Racing, Blanchard Racing Team

Supercars podiums by Erebus drivers*

20: David Reynolds13: Brodie Kostecki8: Will Brown5: Anton De Pasquale1: Lee Holdsworth, Will Davison, Luke Youlden**, David Russell**

*Correct to 2023 Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint

**Youlden and Russell took podiums as enduro co-drivers