{"id":153809,"date":"2025-09-19T06:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T06:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153809\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T06:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T06:51:11","slug":"supercars-news-erebus-motorsport-has-massive-belief-it-can-win-bathurst-1000-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153809\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Erebus Motorsport has \u2018massive belief\u2019 it can win Bathurst 1000 again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Erebus
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tErebus scored its second Bathurst win in 2024. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n

The squad has slipped down the pecking order this season after the exit of star driver Brodie Kostecki, co-driver Todd Hazelwood and key engineers to Dick Johnson Racing.<\/p>\n

Kostecki\u2019s replacement Cooper Murray is 23rd in the championship amid a rough rookie campaign but scored an encouraging seventh at The Bend with debutant co-driver Jobe Stewart.<\/a><\/p>\n

Murray and Stewart both shone at Bathurst last year, the former driving Triple Eight\u2019s Supercheap Auto Great Race wildcard and the latter scoring a maiden race win in Super2.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re only going there to win,\u201d Ryan told Speedcafe of Bathurst. \u201cWe\u2019ve got massive belief. We saw what Cooper could do last year, he had top five pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if we can roll out a car that\u2019s strong, we\u2019ve got massive confidence that Jobe can be as fast as any co-driver. That\u2019s all you need.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Cooper can tick his box, put it in the Shootout and be at the front of the grid\u2026 based on last year, you\u2019re going to have to be on the front-row or pole to win, you\u2019re not going to win from 10th.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ve got to qualify good and then just execute during the race. I think we\u2019ve got as good a chance as anyone to win. I don\u2019t go to Bathurst for anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Peter Brock Trophy at the Bathurst 1000 media launch on September 1. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n

Erebus is determined to retain the perpetual Peter Brock Trophy, which team owner Betty Klimenko proudly keeps at her home in New South Wales\u2019 Southern Highlands.<\/p>\n

Klimenko personally couriered the trophy to Sydney and back for the recent Bathurst 1000 media launch function on September 1, where it was used in group driver photoshoots.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s widely known that she\u2019s made it clear to Supercars that the trophy should not be used in promotions with Kostecki and Hazelwood in DJR uniform.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Regardless, Kostecki and Hazelwood will again be hard to beat at Mount Panorama this year, as evidenced by the combination\u2019s first-up enduro win with DJR at The Bend on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Asked of DJR\u2019s success with the ex-Erebus ingredients, Ryan said: \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing, but we did it with them, everyone else is just taking what we did and trying to emulate it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did a great job [on Sunday]. We\u2019ll take the credit for it. It\u2019s an Erebus chassis and Erebus drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never want to lose people but to see them keep succeeding is good, knowing we were a part of it, and we could be a part of it again, making sure we beat them in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The DJR drivers with the trophy in Sydney as part of the group photoshoot. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n

A deal struck late last year for DJR to adopt Erebus chassis added to an unusual dynamic between the teams, given the driver and engineer defections.<\/p>\n

It was part of a broader plan for Erebus to exploit its early Gen3 success by opening its doors to customers. But that door has now firmly shut, as Ryan first flagged back in June.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t work for us. We\u2019ve got chassis we want to build for ourselves next year and [fabricator] Jimmy [White] is a one-man band, we just don\u2019t have time to build multiple chassis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe regret doing it, we should have never done it, but it\u2019s a thing you\u2019ve got to sometimes try. We\u2019ll just get on with being the independent team we\u2019ve always been.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf [DJR] want more in the future they aren\u2019t going to get them off us.\u201d<\/p>\n

DJR is believed to be acquiring an un-raced Erebus-built chassis from the Blanchard Racing Team, which is set to link with Triple Eight next season.<\/a><\/p>\n

Erebus to make post-Bathurst call on 2026 seat<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erebus scored its second Bathurst win in 2024. Image: Supplied The squad has slipped down the pecking order…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,101490,12356,44544,806,805,803,804,12357,85],"class_list":["post-153809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barry-ryan","tag-bathurst-1000","tag-erebus-motorsport","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-slot1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}