{"id":166801,"date":"2025-09-24T22:55:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T22:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/166801\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T22:55:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T22:55:15","slug":"todd-hazelwood-confirms-2026-brodie-kostecki-co-drive-deal-at-dick-johnson-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/166801\/","title":{"rendered":"Todd Hazelwood confirms 2026 Brodie Kostecki co-drive deal at Dick Johnson Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

TODD Hazelwood\u2019s boyhood dream to represent Dick Johnson<\/a> Racing will roll on in 2026, with the two-time race winner revealing he joined on a two-year deal.<\/p>\n

No contract term was publicly specified when Hazelwood followed Brodie Kostecki<\/a> across to the Ford squad, leaving a potential question mark as to whether the 2017 Super2 champion could become a free agent after this enduro season.<\/p>\n

But, on the back of victory in the AirTouch 500 at The Bend, Hazelwood has put beyond doubt that he will continue co-driving with Kostecki next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a two-year deal with DJR as a co-driver, so I will continue working with Brodie,\u201d he told V8 Sleuth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m enjoying my time as a co-driver and the team here has been fantastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we keep winning races together, I\u2019ll happily keep signing up with Brodie and keep doing what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we can create some history in the next race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The history he refers to is the chance to become the first driver combination to win consecutive Bathurst 1000s for different manufacturers, having conquered the Mountain last year with Chevrolet-aligned Erebus Motorsport.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Hazelwood\u2019s recent career successes have not only been a confidence boost after a tough six-year slog as a full-timer, but vindication of his decision to move to DJR last off-season.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, especially at the end of 2023, I wanted to reinvigorate myself as a driver. I felt like my chapter in the sport wasn\u2019t done yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like there was a lot of things that I wanted to achieve that I hadn\u2019t achieved as well, so to go out and team up with Brodie last year, I knew that was going to be my best opportunity ever in Supercars to get the desired result of winning a race. I hadn\u2019t won a race in 190-odd races that I\u2019d been in Supercars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was no question from my point of view that it had been a pretty tough time, so then to turn those fortunes around to win the biggest race of the sport, but also my very first race win, was super special.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never had that doubt, but I guess for me, one thing that I have taken away looking at the last 18 months is I probably have instilled a little bit more confidence back into myself again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess especially towards the end of 2022 and \u201923, I felt like I was working harder than I ever had before and wasn\u2019t getting the results on-track, which started to create a little bit of frustration.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s probably the best thing now, to get out of that mindset and now to have confidence back on my side, winning races, doing what I love, enjoying my racing once again.<\/p>\n

\"\"Todd Hazelwood<\/a> and Brodie Kostecki after winning at The Bend. Pic: Supplied\/Mark Horsburgh<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s always a powerful thing in this industry. We always talk about when drivers get confidence they\u2019re unstoppable, so I\u2019m certainly hoping that\u2019s the mindset I can keep growing and keep building on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with someone like Brodie who is so confident in his approach, he\u2019s very smart and very talented behind the wheel but also outside of the car as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo being able to lean on Brodie and also develop myself based off what I\u2019m seeing, what I\u2019m hearing, what I\u2019m working with, with him and (engineer) George Commins as well, has been really beneficial for me as an individual.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the choice to leave Erebus mere days after winning the 2024 Great Race, Hazelwood reflected: \u201cObviously Brodie was already signed with Dick Johnson Racing before we went into Bathurst, and obviously we had the success there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a funny week post-Bathurst because I just had the ultimate high of my career, winning Bathurst and achieving a childhood dream, and then I had the big problem of making the decision of \u2018do I want to continue working with Brodie and keep the good times rolling?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then also you had to make the hard decision of letting down a team, because it\u2019s a big organisation behind you to achieve these moments in sport, so to let down the news to Barry Ryan was always going to be a tough conversation to have.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s the game we play. Complacency doesn\u2019t get you anywhere in sport, particularly in life as well, so you have always got to strive to be better and I knew for me if I was to still get success as a co-driver, then teaming up with Brodie was going to be a no-brainer and there was validation in my decision winning at The Bend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe basically kicked off where we finished last year, so it was good to put my own mind at ease that I had made the right decision. I certainly felt that I had, but to then put that decision into action come race day was really pleasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Hazelwood under lock and key, and Kostecki and Will Davison<\/a> continuing as primaries, that leaves Tony D\u2019Alberto as the only unknown for DJR\u2019s 2026 roster.<\/p>\n

Typically renewed on a year-by-year basis, D\u2019Alberto is in the midst of his 10th successive season enduro campaign with the Stapylton team.<\/p>\n

The Undercut \u2013 Unpacking The Bend & Bringing on The Mountain<\/p>\n

V8 Sleuth’s take on the world of Supercars from The Bend & Bathurst, with thanks to Shell OTR!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TODD Hazelwood\u2019s boyhood dream to represent Dick Johnson Racing will roll on in 2026, with the two-time race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-166801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166801","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=166801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}