{"id":452829,"date":"2026-02-02T03:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T03:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/452829\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T03:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T03:17:17","slug":"jobe-stewart-opens-2026-supercars-campaign-with-tailem-bend-rookie-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/452829\/","title":{"rendered":"Jobe Stewart opens 2026 Supercars campaign with Tailem Bend rookie test"},"content":{"rendered":"

IT is perhaps fitting that Jobe Stewart<\/a>\u2019s 2026 Repco Supercars Championship preparations will ramp up today at the very location that put his name on the map.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old is diving straight in for a rookie test on the first day that Supercars\u2019 testing ban lifts.<\/p>\n

Erebus Motorsport is taking the chance to run him at The Bend Motorsport Park, where Stewart shone in last year\u2019s 500km enduro.<\/p>\n

Of course, Stewart was already a Super3 champion and Super2 race winner by then, but it was an almighty impression to make on main game debut as a young co-driver peeling off overtakes on multiple full-timers.<\/p>\n

Now, the #9 Camaro is all his.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be good to back after racing there last year, and obviously it\u2019s my home state in SA so that will be cool,\u201d Stewart, who moved from Mount Gambier to Melbourne in the off-season, told V8 Sleuth.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt has come up quick to be honest but the whole team is pretty ready and for me I\u2019m just excited to get back in the seat and develop the relationship with Dan (Frencham, engineer) a bit more and kind of figure out how each other works.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019ll learn more and more about each other throughout the year, so just gelling with him and working with the rest of the team and seeing how it operates from the driver\u2019s seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides being a useful opportunity to run through procedures and set-up changes, Stewart will get a headstart on understanding The Bend\u2019s West layout that will be used this September (as opposed to the International Circuit last year).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually had the International (layout) booked and then they changed it, so we had to do a bit of magic there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be good to drive on the West track. I probably prefer that track, it\u2019s easier on tyres and also creates another passing opportunity. It breaks up all the sweeping corners with that tight hairpin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Jobe Stewart. Pic: Mark Walker<\/p>\n

Oh, and the rookie is not shy on setting the bar high for the season ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big goal would be to make finals. We saw that Kai (Allen) could do it last year so hopefully with a bit of luck and a fast race car we can aim for that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that will be the goal from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart\u2019s teammate Cooper Murray<\/a> will also attend The Bend today and will be permitted to cut up to 10 laps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IT is perhaps fitting that Jobe Stewart\u2019s 2026 Repco Supercars Championship preparations will ramp up today at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-452829","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\/452829","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=452829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}