'Nothing to lose': Randle not backing down

Thomas Randle feels he has "nothing to lose" across a defining stretch of rounds that will decide the 2026 Supercars Finals field, starting with a favoured circuit in Townsville.

The Tickford Racing driver sits 14th overall, 230 points away from the Finals cut-line with five rounds remaining before the top 10 is locked away.

A 2025 Semi Finalist, Randle claimed a podium at the Grand Prix, but like teammate Cam Waters, has largely been undone by a lack of qualifying performance.

Randle has a strong record at Reid Park, notably claiming a brace of top fives in 2024. Should he follow in Waters' Darwin footsteps and claw points back relative to 10th, Randle could reemerge as a Finals contender.

For now, the 2020 Super2 champion isn't going down without a fight.

"I've got nothing to lose, and everything to gain,” Randle told Supercars.com.

“It's certainly been a testing year, a trying year for a number of reasons. I want to get some really strong results, not only myself, but for the team, our partners and our fans.

“I want to get the Castrol Mustang at the pointy end and show people what we're capable of. We've always been pretty strong at Townsville. I love that track.

“We want to get some strong results on the board because it’s been a challenging year bar the Grand Prix, really."

Both Tickford Mustangs turned the corner in Darwin, but poor luck reared its head when Randle suffered a cool suit failure on the warm up lap before the Saturday race.

He ran as high as sixth before fighting to 12th, and after a brave effort to qualify on Sunday morning, was ruled out of the Sunday race. Not only did he incur another points hit, he had to do so watching his own car go around the track at the hands of super-sub Mark Winterbottom.

“We qualified fourth, we were eighth in the Shootout on used tyres, and we were up to sixth in the race. Obviously it all sort of went downhill from there for obvious reasons," Randle said of Darwin Saturday.

"There's promising signs there. Cam had a strong weekend, considering how we'd been going. He scored the most points out of anyone that weekend, got a race win, a couple poles, and three podiums.

"I'd like to replicate that and be up the pointy end of Townsville. I’m just looking forward to getting back in the car and getting some really strong results, because I think we deserve it."

It was a first DNS for Randle since The Bend 2022, when a start-line crash ruled both he and Andre Heimgartner out of the weekend finale. Watching his rivals race was painful all the same for Randle in Darwin, and something he never wants to face again.

“As a driver, the last thing you want to do is withdraw from a race. For it to actually happen was pretty emotional,” the Victorian continued.

"The thing you have nightmares about as a driver is missing a race. The only other time I did that was at The Bend in 2022, but that was for obvious reasons.

“It’s hard to describe what I went through, they were unusual circumstances, but it was the right decision at the end of the day. It wouldn't have been responsible to drive in the condition I was in.

"I think it was more painful watching my car go around, and I wasn't in it. I don’t want to go through that again.”

Track action in Townsville commences on Friday July 10. Tickets for the event are on sale now.

Thomas Randle: 2026 championship progression