Le Brocq ups aggression after hard questions

Jack Le Brocq feels he is returning to his best, after asking questions of whether or not he felt he belonged on the Supercars grid.

The Matt Stone Racing recruit has starred in 2026, currently sitting just behind reigning Supercars champion Chaz Mostert in the fight for a Finals spot.

Le Brocq may not have had the fastest car this season, but his consistency has kept him in the fight in a year General Motors needs all and sundry to step up.

Step up Le Brocq has, and how. His second — and ultimately, last — season with Erebus Motorsport last year left the freshly 34-year-old with questions.

When asked by Supercars.com if his 2026 performance has proven he still belongs on the grid, Le Brocq replied: "Definitely.

"I had a pretty rough time last year, and I was second-guessing and questioning whether I do belong.”

The penny dropped — Le Brocq recognised how others were getting their elbows out, and realised that he needed to return serve to stay fresh, and stay hungry.

“I feel I've stepped up in terms of my race craft,” he said.

"I had to work on my aggression. I got pushed around and boxed in the last few years, so I’ve moved with the times and got my elbows out, because there's definitely people on the grid who push you around if you give them a chance to."

For the most part, Le Brocq has made it work. In the Darwin opener, he got it wrong, tipping out David Reynolds and attracting a penalty. Instead of being bogged down, Le Brocq nailed top 10 finishes across the next two days.

Qualifying remains a headache. He's ranked 15th in the field, three positions behind his race ranking.

“I feel like I'm starting to get my mojo back a little bit with qualifying, because something's been lacking a little bit this year,” Le Brocq said.

“I still feel like we've got work to do, but we've been working pretty hard to get that consistency back to put a lap together over one lap, because it’s a big qualifying game at the moment.

“Tassie was an outlier with some of the problems and issues we’ve been having within the car, so that definitely hurt our points tally a bit. But Darwin was okay for us. Obviously Friday wasn't ideal, but Saturday and Sunday were decent.

"We're chipping away and scoring results. Obviously, you always want to go that little bit better, but it's nice to have been consistently around the top 10 mark."

The other side of Le Brocq's story, is what happens in 2027. Matt Stone Racing didn't disclose the deals for both Le Brocq and rookie Zach Bates, but it's understood team owner Stone is happy with his current line-up.

Such speculation means little to Le Brocq, who when asked if contact chatter is a distraction, replied: "No. It's just business as usual.”

Le Brocq's on track business is rising his stocks, which some would argue dipped across two tough years at Erebus. Should Le Brocq qualify for the Finals, his stocks would arguably be higher than ever — and given the momentum he feels at Yatala, alongside rookie engineer Oli Boone, there's season to be confident.

“As a team, we're definitely making progress, and the boys are working very hard back in the workshop fine-tuning procedures and getting the car where we want it,” Le Brocq said.

“The bar's raised again. All teams are doing a pretty incredible job. If we tidy up the little one percenters, we’ll be more consistent and fighting in the top five.

“I’m building my relationship with Oli, he's still obviously very green, I’m still getting get him up to speed. He's learning a lot very quickly, he's been thrown into the deep end in his first year, but he’s been awesome.

"He's a very smart fella and he's picking it up very quickly. We're learning each other's language, and we're moving in the right direction.”

Le Brocq resumes his 2026 campaign at the NTI Townsville 500 on July 10-12.