{"id":444914,"date":"2026-01-29T10:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444914\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T10:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:17:13","slug":"brad-jones-racing-signs-matt-hillyer-brad-vaughan-as-2026-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444914\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad Jones Racing signs Matt Hillyer, Brad Vaughan as 2026 drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORMER Walkinshaw prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Matt Hillyer<\/a> will continue his Super2 journey this year after inking a deal with Brad Jones Racing.<\/p>\n

Having won the 2023 Australian Formula Ford title and then starred in Toyota 86s, Hillyer last year graduated to Super2.<\/p>\n

However, WAU\u2019s decision to step back from Supercars\u2019 feeder series had cast doubt over his immediate future.<\/p>\n

While his 2025 teammate Campbell Logan<\/a> was quickly snapped up by Tickford Autosport, silence had surrounded Hillyer\u2019s prospects\u2026 until now.<\/p>\n

Hillyer will sport the #2 on his BJR ZB Commodore, and he will count race-winning incumbent Brad Vaughan<\/a> as his new ally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to bring Matt into our Super2 line-up,\u201d said team owner Brad Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he\u2019s achieved so far in his young career is remarkable and he has such a strong work ethic which makes him such a formidable asset for our team.<\/p>\n

\"\"Pic: Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also very pleased to have Brad back for another year, he hit a lot of our targets in 2025 and we built a very strong platform with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing Brad win in Adelaide, at his home event in such a dominant way was incredible and a testament to him and our Super2 program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we have a really strong line-up for this year and we\u2019ve shown we have the capability to go out there, win and chase the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vaughan finished 2025 as the top Super2 driver outside of the Tickford quartet. BJR is yet to confirm if Vaughan will be retained as part of its Repco Supercars Championship enduro roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome being back with the team for another season,\u201d said the South Australian 21-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of last year everything really clicked in the squad and I\u2019m excited to see what we can build this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to say thank you to Brad for his belief, he\u2019s great to work with and a true racer, so your feedback gets heard. Thank you also to my supporters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took six rounds for us to build up to that win, so hopefully that means we can hit the ground running in Sydney and really start with a bang.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Brad Vaughan celebrates Super2 pole at Ipswich. Pic: Supplied\/Pace Images<\/p>\n

Hillyer, who effectively replaces Cody Gillis<\/a>, was equally upbeat about what\u2019s ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to Brad and the team for bringing me onboard for this year, I\u2019m really excited to get to work with the crew there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve taken a lot of learnings and experience from last year and while there\u2019s a new circuit added to the calendar, which will be a cool challenge but there in Darwin, I\u2019m still going into this year with a lot more knowledge and understanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cBJR has a lot of support in their Super2 program and last year they were able to get some really awesome results, so I\u2019m very keen to keep building on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to also thank my parents for everything over the years and all of my amazing supporters of mine. Big thank you to Kangan Institute for taking me from an Apprentice Mechanic up through and into Super2. Also to all my other partners; Lloyds Auctions, Wash It Australia, Mentone pre mix, AGJ Cartage, Super Spill and Safety Solutions, and Boswen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Super2 season will open next month at Sydney Motorsport Park.<\/p>\n

Hillyer and Vaughan make for 10 officially confirmed 2026 Super2 drivers thus far, following Logan, Ben Gomersall<\/a>, Reuben Goodall<\/a> and Nash Morris<\/a> for Tickford; Zak Best<\/a> and Ryan Tomsett<\/a> for Anderson Motorsport; and Ayrton Hodson<\/a> and Tommy Smith for Matt Stone Racing.<\/p>\n

The Supercars Finals: Who\u2019s In, and Who\u2019s Out<\/p>\n

THE team from The Undercut have run their rule over the prospective field for the inaugural Supercars Finals, with the battle to make the top ten in the standings after Bathurst tight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORMER Walkinshaw prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Matt Hillyer will continue his Super2 journey this year after inking a deal with Brad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-444914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444914","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=444914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}