From rags to riches: Hazelwood's remarkable rise to Bathurst glory

Todd Hazelwood's long road to Supercars finally saw its crowning moment at Mount Panorama, winning the Repco Bathurst 1000 alongside Erebus Motorsport.

After winning the Dunlop Super2 Series in 2017, Hazelwood endured a difficult full-time Supercars career from 2018 to 2023 in midfield machinery.

After winning his development series crown with Matt Stone Racing, Hazelwood spearheaded the young squad's first two seasons in main game without much success.

Stints at Brad Jones Racing, a return to MSR, and a year at Blanchard Racing Team last year followed, before being left without a full-time drive in 2024.

Hazelwood turned to former housemate Brodie Kostecki for 2024, the two having been Super2 teammates at MSR in 2017, announcing an Erebus co-drive with reigning Supercars champion in the off-season.

However, that turned into a two-round cameo at the start of this season as Kostecki sat out, with Hazelwood getting valuable miles at the Thrifty Bathurst 500 in February.

It was clear that the pair would be a formidable force from the outset at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, where they displayed great speed without the result to show for it after a late failure.

That speed was also replicated this weekend, where Kostecki claimed his second straight Bathurst pole, before dominating the race from pole.

Kostecki fended off Broc Feeney in a 30-lap shootout to claim redemption from last year's runner-up finish, leaving an emotional Hazelwood lost for words.

"Unbelievable, I think I'm hallucinating," Hazelwood said immediately following the finish.

On the podium, Hazelwood was full of praise for Kostecki, who arguably put in the best weekend of his career to hand Erebus their second Bathurst crown: "There's so many people I want to thank, certainly can't thank this guy.

"Stellar job, fast car, he's an absolute wizard, the work that he does behind the scenes in the workshop, he's so methodical, he's so smart, and to share the car with him has been an absolute pleasure."

It has been a long journey to the top step of the Bathurst podium for Hazelwood, who has had to work hard for every opportunity on his rise through the ranks, a journey he later detailed in the post-race press conference.

"I've probably had a bit more of a unique journey to the top step of the Mountain than other people, but everyone has their own story," he said.

"It's well documented that my family, and particularly my Mum, Dad, and sister, we all worked our backsides off in the junior category years, but everyone has got that story for sure.

"We cooked countless sausages, and we've had a lot of members over the years that have helped pitch in, and a lot of fans, sponsors, there's so many people, an endless amount of people I need to thank and I can't today.

"To have my family here today is really special, if there was ever a way I could repay them, they mortgaged the house to help me get my kickstart in Supercars, so to win the Great Race is probably a nice return."

Come Monday, Hazelwood woke up as a Bathurst winner, a dream over 20 years in the making from formative days in dirt karts.

"Yeah, it's certainly been a hell of a journey to get to this point as a race winner here in Supercars," Hazelwood said on Supercars.com's Schick Cool Down Lap podcast.

"All the way back to starting as a young dirt karter as a seven-year-old in South Australia, living on the side of the road, sleeping in tents and scabbing tires out the bins at the go kart track.

"Doing all those sorts of things that were good to try and stitch together a budget to go racing. Fortunate to get a scholarship program, Formula 4, been on the Shannon Supercar Showdown platform which gave me my first shot in a Supercar.

"Big kudos to Matt Stone for basically giving my first shot in the Super2 program, it was certainly a lot of work as well. We were able to come out champions in 2017.

"But to be honest, I look back at my Supercars program as a full-time driver and it was a pretty frustrating term.

"Seven years that I had only one pole position and one podium and no wins was something that really frustrated me, for the amount of effort and work that I put in and the amount of people that supported me to get to that moment.

"To now turn my career around, I stepped away from being full-time deliberately to then be put myself in a position where I knew I could be aligned with the team that I knew that could win races.

"Obviously, Erebus were the team to beat last year, and after Bathurst last year, I had a car fail on me with three laps to go, and that was just the biggest kick in the nuts that you could have at this place.

"This place rips your heart out at the best of times, but this time it's fully fulfilled my heart."