THERE was a real feeling of hope about Erebus Motorsport entering the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship.

With the ugliness that engulfed its championship defences two years ago having faded, the team got back to its youth development-orientated roots with a talented driver line-up of Cooper Murray and Jobe Stewart – the very two guys who almost pulled off a Bathurst 1000 boilover last October.

Throw in the additions of veteran team manager Dean Orr and up-and-coming engineer Daniel Frencham – the latter allowing for CEO Barry Ryan to get back to focusing on CEO things – and it felt as if all the ingredients were there for Erebus to resume punching above its weight.

Thus far, it has not panned out.

Three rounds in, Erebus is anchored to the bottom of the pitlane order and its drivers are last and second-last in the points.

There’s been reliability woes, struggles for pace, and general bad luck (e.g. Murray repeatedly getting wiped out while running well at Albert Park).

While a parity investigation is playing out in relation to the Camaros, Ryan is refusing to play the p-word.

“I don’t want to blame anything until we’re doing a good job,” he told V8 Sleuth.

“We have just got to do a better job.

“We have got to give Jobe the time. A bit disappointed Cooper is not up there a bit more, because he showed some glimpses at least at Grand Prix.”

Jobe Stewart. Pic: Ross Gibb

This weekend’s ITM Christchurch Super440 is viewed as a golden opportunity to climb the pecking order being that it’s new to the calendar, and after taking a slight step forward in seeing Stewart manage his season-best qualifying result last time out.

“We found a few things (on Saturday in Taupō), we think,” said Ryan.

“We just tried a different direction because the car is not doing what it did last year or the year before.

“Whatever they did in the off-season to make the GM match, or whatever they did, has made us go in a totally different direction with the set-up.

“So that combined with an inexperienced driver and a second-year driver, I’m not making excuses, but that’s where we are.

“We have just got to keep working hard. We’ve been there before, we have just got to do it again.

“It’s just hard to do this when we won the championship three years ago.

“But anyway, we’ll keep fighting.”

Christchurch form will be extra important for all in the paddock, given it carries the most points of any Supercars round in 25 years.

All up, 400 points will be available at Ruapuna, thanks to the Sunday Taupō race being rescheduled to this Friday.

RAW: 2001 BOC Gases Australian Super Touring finale at Oran Park, Race 1 highlights

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