Super2 talking points in 2025: The return of Triple Eight
Ahead of the 25th anniversary season of the Dunlop Super2 Series, Supercars.com takes a look at some of the key talking points ahead of the 2025, continuing with the return of Supercars' biggest powerhouse to the development series.
At the 2022 Adelaide 500, Triple Eight celebrated double championship success, with Shane van Gisbergen's third and final Supercars crown complemented by a Super2 Series win for Declan Fraser.
Fraser's development series victory capped off a remarkable 24 months for the Banyo squad, who also claimed a clean sweep of both 2021 titles with van Gisbergen and his future teammate Broc Feeney.
Fraser's crowning moment was Triple Eight's third Super2 title, with Andrew Thompson claiming the team's first title win in a dominant 2011 campaign, however the Queensland squad pulled out of Super2 following 2022.
Having focused on GT3 programs locally and abroad with Mercedes-AMG in the past few years, it was a mission in developing youth that saw Triple Eight announce their return to the development series in October.
Having leased the Commodores run by Reuben Goodall and Callum Walker in the 2024 season, Triple Eight have secured the services of 22-year-old Sydneysider Jackson Walls and Gold Coast teenager Ben Gomersall.
The ex-Goodall Commodore will be out of commission for the opening stages of the season after the South Australian's frightening qualifying crash in Adelaide, with Shane van Gisbergen's former Tekno Commodore to be utilised in upgraded ZB guise.
The Super2 program is only one program that Triple Eight are running for young drivers, with the team also announcing a GT4 Mercedes program in recent weeks with teenager Summer Rintoule to be joined by Erebus junior Jarrod Hughes.
Whilst sceptics might say that Ben Gomersall was handed his Super2 ride on the basis of his last name alone, he had an under the radar year in the Toyota GAZOO Racing Australia GR Cup in 2024.
Gomersall was particularly impressive in the final round on the Gold Coast, running in the top five consistently on his way to securing sixth in the final standings, finishing ahead of the likes of former champion Lachlan Gibbons and WAU prospect Matt Hillyer.
The teenager will also be parlaying his Super2 campaign with a tilt at the TA2 Muscle Car Series, where he will be competing alongside fellow Triple Eight driver and Super2 rival Hughes.
However, Walls is likely to be the team's leading light in their return development series campaign, having been one of the rising stars of the Porsche Carrera Cup in recent years.
Walls narrowly missed out claiming the 2023 Carrera Cup crown in a last round showdown with New Zealander Callum Hedge, and finished fourth in last year's title race, but won the coveted junior driver championship.
The New South Welshman has also proven to be more than capable in one-make Lamborghini competition, finishing second in the Super Trofeo Asia Series in the Pro-Am Class.
Walls impressed the team during a Gen3 evaluation day at Queensland Raceway last year, and very well could the rookie to watch in a field full of fast young talent.
Tickets for the season-opening round in Sydney, on February 21-23, are on sale now.
