'He's ready to go now': Erebus rookies nail first audition

Erebus Motorsport's continued faith in providing young talent their big breaks in the Repco Supercars Championship once again paid dividends over the weekend at the AirTouch 500 at The Bend.

With 2023 champion and 2024 Bathurst champion Brodie Kostecki, as well as star co-drivers Todd Hazelwood and Jayden Ojeda moving on to pastures new, it left three vacancies in Erebus' complete 2025 driver roster.

Cooper Murray was signed to replace Kostecki full-time, and Academy stars Jobe Stewart and Jarrod Hughes were announced as enduro co-drivers. All three delivered on Sunday.

The combination of Murray/Stewart proved to be one of the surprise packages, with an eighth-place starting spot quickly becoming fourth in the first stint thanks to a bold move to start Murray against all of the other co-drivers.

However, that meant the second of 21-year-old Stewart's two stints would come against the full-timers, and not just any full-timers, but the front-running stars. Quite some pressure for co-driver, let alone a debutant.

However, on a day where legends such as Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes, and Garth Tander all made mistakes, as did veteran James Moffat and fellow Super2 rising star Cameron McLeod, Stewart was simply brilliant.

Not only was he mistake-free, but he was also more than a match for those around him, so much so that he overtook Supercars race winner Cameron Hill and Tickford's Thomas Randle with raw speed.

"We put Jobe in a position where he was going to have a lot of pressure when he was going to be with the main drivers, and we knew that," Erebus CEO Barry Ryan said on the Cool Down Lap presented by Moza Racing.

"That third stint, or his second stint was just unreal, to be mixing it with the main guys in his first ever main game race, [I'm] very, very proud."

Stewart will be an unfamiliar name to most, however he has been the pet project of the Erebus Academy since Ryan signed him to the program as a prodigious 12-year-old karter.

However, seventh on Supercars debut with a standout stint saw the South Australian's name up in lights post-race, though the performance wasn't a surprise to Ryan, who previously maintained both Stewart and Hughes are in contention for main game promotions.

"I'm not surprised at all, no. Jobe's been ready for probably 12 months, and unfortunately we didn't give him the opportunity last year, but he's ready to go now," Ryan added.

"I can't wait to see him at Bathurst, because that's where he'll really shine."

In commentary, Mark Skaife was impressed by Stewart, saying: "The standout young bloke, Jobe Stewart did a really good job, he did really well today. He didn't look out of place against all the A-graders, he actually passed Cam Hill at one stage."

Stewart recently outlined his desires to join the championship in 2026, and given the performance of the #99 Camaro at The Bend in the hands of both Murray and Stewart has Ryan daring to dream for Bathurst: "Up inside the 10? No we're going to go and win it. Cooper is really fast at Bathurst, Jobe is really fast, so we're going there to win it. We're not going there to come 10th."

Also impressive was 2024 Super2 Rookie of the Year Hughes, who held the fastest lap of the race in the opening stint in Jack Le Brocq's #9 Tyrepower entry.

Despite being pushed back from 13th to 20th on the opening lap, the 20-year-old fought his way through the field finishing his laps 12th in the running order, where the car would remain to the finish.

It was also Hughes' first race behind the wheel of a Supercar since he dislocated his shoulder in a nasty crash in Round 4 of the Dunlop Series at Ipswich.

"A big shoutout to Hughesy too, unreal drive by him as well. He didn't put a foot wrong," Ryan said.

"He got knocked around a bit in the opening laps, but he drove it back to 12th, and he gave a straight car to Jack. I'm really proud of him.

"He's pretty brave, he's a brave kid. He didn't really say anything all weekend, but I know that he was a little bit tender in his shoulder still, but by Bathurst he should be 100%.

Both Stewart and Hughes will be completing double duties at the Repco Bathurst 1000, with the duo contesting the Dunlop Super2 Series. Stewart won the opening Super2 race at Bathurst last year by 13 seconds.