{"id":74385,"date":"2025-08-17T05:49:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T05:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/74385\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T05:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T05:49:13","slug":"supercars-news-rising-stars-lament-silly-season-driver-swaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/74385\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Rising stars lament silly season driver swaps"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Rising
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQR’s opening race produced the youngest ever Supercars podium. Image: InSyde Media<\/p>\n

Super2 Series leader Rylan Gray, 18, and latest race winner Jackson Walls, 22, are among the young chargers wanting to break into the championship.<\/p>\n

With Tickford Racing having locked down Cam Waters and Thomas Randle on multi-year deals<\/a>, Gray is having to look elsewhere for his big chance.<\/p>\n

Currently enjoying a stellar second Super2 season and preparing for an endurance wildcard campaign, Gray rates his chances of a full-time graduation in 2026 as \u201c50:50\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so hard to break into the main game nowadays,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of the guys swap between teams and it doesn\u2019t really leave space for young guys coming up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll just focus on Super2 and trying to wrap up the championship here, just try and keep our heads down and hopefully something comes up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rylan Gray. Image: Image: InSyde Media<\/p>\n

Walls, who made the leap from Carrera Cup to Super2 this year with Triple Eight, told a similar story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so hard cracking into main game now with contracts and everyone just seems to swap [seats],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of some guys who could potentially leave, they just stay in and take budget to a different team. Just to be in anything really in main game is the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doubling down on his point, Gray noted the recent success of young drivers in the Supercars Championship.<\/p>\n

Last weekend\u2019s Ipswich Super440 again featured a new record for the youngest ever Supercars podium, with Broc Feeney, Kai Allen and Ryan Wood boasting an average age just over 21.<\/p>\n

The record had stood for only a matter of weeks after Feeney, Allen and Matt Payne in Darwin beat a marker that had stood for just over two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see some of the older guys just swap teams and it doesn\u2019t really do any good,\u201d added Gray.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you see all the younger guys getting more race wins and podiums and I think that\u2019s the way the future is heading\u2026 you see all the young guys doing good now.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Gray is eager to step up in 2026, Walls said he\u2019s targeting 2027 for a Supercars Championship berth, with a second Super2 season at Triple Eight likely next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not trying to create any expectations for myself, I\u2019m seeing how it goes by the minute,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know what we\u2019re striving for in 2027. We\u2019re working backwards from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jackson Walls. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s going to be content with anything less than nabbing the Super2 title this year.<\/p>\n

Victory on Sunday leaves the Triple Eight driver fifth in the standings behind the four Tickford drivers, less than 200 points adrift of Gray.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t enter this category to come fifth or be rookie champion, I came here to be a champion,\u201d Walls added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anyone isn\u2019t with that goal in this category, they shouldn\u2019t be racing, it\u2019s as simple as that. I just go out there and try and win as many races as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Super2 Series will continue at the Bathurst 1000 on October 9-12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QR’s opening race produced the youngest ever Supercars podium. Image: InSyde Media Super2 Series leader Rylan Gray, 18,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,57676,806,805,803,804,45804,7499,85,43956,7500],"class_list":["post-74385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jackson-walls","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-rylan-gray","tag-slot4","tag-sports","tag-tickford-racing","tag-triple-eight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74385","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=74385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}