New cars, new champ, new redemption: What we're excited for in 2026
The calendars have finally ticked over to 2026, and it shapes as a monumental season of Supercars action.
A whopping 37 races will comprise the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship, with 7195km of racing from February to November, spanning every corner of Australia and both islands of New Zealand.
There is also a whole heap of change, with no less than 15 of the 24 car field experiencing some kind of change over the off-season, whether that be a driver change, manufacturer change, or a license swapping teams.
As such, there's plenty to be excited about in 2026, in fact narrowing it down to just five was an incredibly difficult task.
The debut of Toyota
It's happening just next month, but we will finally see the Toyota GR Supra hit the track in anger at the Sydney 500, taking on the Mustang GT and Camaro ZL1. It's been a long build-up, the project having been first announced just after the 2024 Sandown 500, and with the car having completed aerodynamic parity testing in America, attention now turns to how the cars will perform. Reigning champion Chaz Mostert and Kiwi young gun Ryan Wood lead the Toyota brigade in the soon-to-be renamed Walkinshaw TWG Racing outfit, whilst partner team Brad Jones Racing boast two race winners of their own in Andre Heimgartner and recruit Cameron Hill, with Macauley Jones completing the five-car roster.
New Zealand Double Header
For the first time in the history of the ATCC/Supercars Championship, New Zealand will play host to two points-paying rounds of the championship. In back-to-back weekends, the Supercars circus will make it's North Island stop at Taupō for the third straight season from April 10-12, before making their first-ever visit to the South Island at Christuchurch's Ruapuna Raceway from April 17-19. You can expect the Kiwi fans will turn out in numbers, with Wood, Heimgartner, and reigning Bathurst 1000 champion Matt Payne to fly the flag for the country. Tickets for both events are on sale now.
Broc Feeney's redemption arc
It was devastating to see Broc Feeney's outstanding season be brought undone by first a collision with Ryan Wood, and then an engine issue in the final race of the season in Adelaide. There's no denying that the Gold Coaster's season was generational, rarely does a driver win 14 races and 19 poles in a single season, and for it to be in an era where the margins are so fine is astonishing. However, drivers up and down the pit lane have made no secret that they're fearful of the Feeney bounceback. We've seen it in the past when the likes of Jamie Whincup and Scott McLaughlin have missed out by close margins before, but when Feeney finally gets his championship and/or Bathurst win, you can only imagine what the celebrations will look like.
Chaz Mostert's title defence
Those championship-winning celebrations went to Chaz Mostert, who won his first Supercars crown at the 13th time of asking after a storming performance throughout the Finals Series. For the first time in his career, he is the one everyone is chasing entering the 2026 season, and will be wearing the #1. His title defence is one of the more intriguing ones of recent seasons, with the enormous unknown surrounding the performance of the Toyota GR Supra likely the deciding factor in Mostert's title defence. However, getting a prototype chassis out for demonstration/testing laps at the back end of the year was a good sign of the progress made on the project, ditto the successful aero testing in America. There's also a red-hot young teammate in Ryan Wood who will be eager to put the mechanical traumas of 2025 in the rear-view mirror.
The Finals... again!
It delivered high drama in the final three events of 2025, and an intensity surrounding the sport that hadn't been seen in years. Now that teams and drivers have experienced the Finals Series for the first time, lessons will be learned, and there are scores that have been left unsettled. Just predicting who will make the final 10 for the Elimination Final on the Gold Coast will be no easy feat given the amount of change in the field year-on-year. And as for predicting a Grand Final four? Well last year proved that nothing is certain. The way Walkinshaw Andretti United attacked last year also poses an interesting question for the frontrunners; do you use the regular season as a testing ground to make the strongest car possible for The Finals, or does that leave you exposed to those who tackle the season round by round?
The views in this article do not necessarily express the opinions of Supercars, teams or drivers.
