Why championship standings don't tell full story for Erebus

Building has been the theme of Erebus Motorsport's year in 2026, and it was also the theme of their ITM Christchurch Super 440.

They might still be last in the Thrifty Teams' Championship, however an important milestone for the year was ticked off, courtesy of Cooper Murray jagging the team's first top 10 finish of the season in the finale.

It mightn't seem like much for a team that completed a championship double as recently as 2023, however this is also a team that has arguably committed harder to a youth policy than any other team in pit lane.

Murray and Jobe Stewart form the most inexperienced driver pairing on the grid, while Stewart is also working with young Race Engineer Daniel Frencham.

It's been a tough road to start the season, Murray an innocent victim in three separate incidents in Melbourne, while Stewart was also caught up in an incident at Taupō.

However, the way the New Zealand Double Header has instilled confidence in experienced Team Manager Dean Orr, who is confident that the momentum will keep building for their two Camaros.

'Some highs, some lows, a lot of learning, probably a lot of team bonding," said Orr, who was one of several off-track signings in the off-season.

"Taupō, we had Jobe with an incident and what have you, which was tough, but the team really pulled together and got that all back together, so that was a learning experience.

"Christchurch, I feel like we finished on a high. There's some promising signs going into Tasmania.

"To wrap up, really positive and we'll keep pushing on strong like Erebus Motorsport always does."

Murray was able to climb over Jackson Walls and up into 22nd in points following his strong drive to ninth in Race 13, a welcome confidence boost as he leads the team forward.

"Overall, very much a more positive day today than the last three days. Qualified 14th and 15th which was really good progress, and then in the race kept out nose clean and came away with P9 in the end," said Murray.

"It was really good to get some good points in today's race, and a really good foundation and base that we can work with going towards Tassie."

Stewart's progress was masked by a costly collision with fellow Chevrolet rookie Zach Bates in the finale, which cost him a chance to lift himself off the bottom of the points table.

The South Australian also secured his best qualifying result of his young career, outqualifying his highly rated teammate with 14th in Race 12.

"Bit of a struggle for me in the race, qualified pretty decent in 15th, and we were moving forward nicely in the first stint, moved up to hang around the edge of the top 10," said Stewart.

"In the second stint I had a pretty big tyre advantage on one of the cars and went for a move at the last corner, but got forced over the kerb and ended up interlocking wheels which damaged the right rear.

"There's a fair bit of damage on our car, so we had to pull in for a couple of laps and try to fix it, which put us a few laps down.

"We finished last, but credit to the boys to get the car back out, and we still finished. The car's pretty battered and bruised but we learnt a whole lot today and the car was the best it's been all weekend."

Murray and Stewart resume their campaigns in Tasmania from May 22-24.