{"id":357570,"date":"2026-03-31T22:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T22:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/357570\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T22:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T22:49:13","slug":"supercars-news-bayley-hall-pulls-pin-on-darwin-supercars-wildcard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/357570\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Bayley Hall pulls pin on Darwin Supercars wildcard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Bayley
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBayley Hall and Craig Lowndes at the Supercheap Auto livery launch. Image: Richard Gresham<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old is the latest young driver to be given their main game break through the Supercheap program, Hall locked in to make a solo outing in a Team 18-run Camaro at Queensland Raceway before teaming up with Craig Lowndes for the enduros.<\/p>\n

There was talk that a fourth outing could be added to the program, with Hall and Team 18 at one point considering a wildcard entry for Darwin as well.<\/p>\n

That would have fallen outside of the Supercheap budget, which only covers three events, and would have also meant double duties for Hall in Super2 and main game at Hidden Valley.<\/p>\n

Due to those complicating factors, Hall has decided to focus on Super2 with Eggleston Motorsport in Darwin and wait to make his main game debut in Ipswich.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing double duties on a sprint weekend is a lot of responsibility for the team, for the engineers, for everything,\u201d Hall told Speedcafe.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, the program with Supercheap is three rounds, so I would have had to find a bit of funding for that extra round, and it\u2019s also about getting value for the sponsors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s better to sit back [in Darwin], do the job in Super2 and learn as much as I can. I don\u2019t need to do too much all at once \u2013 it\u2019s all about quality over quantity, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

PHOTOS: Supercheap Auto\u2019s wildcard launch event<\/a><\/p>\n

With a background in Carrera Cup, Hall decided to make the switch to Super2 this year to help better prepare for the wildcard program through refining Supercars-specific techniques such as right-foot braking.<\/p>\n

He currently sits 12th in the points after the season-opener at Sydney Motorsport Park, his total preparation for which was a single test day at Winton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m having an absolute ball,\u201d he said of the change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cars are really good fun to drive. Honestly, it has exceeded my expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s on the opposite side \u2013 the engine is now in front of me, it\u2019s right-hand-drive, so it\u2019s an exciting new challenge. I like to challenge myself and the drivers in Super2, most of them are capable of winning races. It\u2019s amazing to see the quality of the drivers and teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupercheap Auto didn\u2019t ask me, or force me, to do Super2. It was my decision. When Ben and Rach [Eggleston] gave me a call, I thought that it made it a lot of sense for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall\u2019s road to the Bathurst 1000 took a significant step forward on Saturday when he and Lowndes pulled the covers off their Supercheap Auto Camaro at Team 18\u2019s HQ in Melbourne<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What was it like for Hall to see his name on the car right next to Lowndes\u2019?<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably the most special day of my life,\u201d he said. \u201cTo see all this happen, to see everyone put in so much effort to make it come together\u2026 I\u2019m just so appreciative to Team 18 and Supercheap and everyone for this opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we just put our heads down, work hard, get to get to Bathurst and throw everything we have at it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bayley Hall and Craig Lowndes at the Supercheap Auto livery launch. Image: Richard Gresham The 22-year-old is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[159853,43206,111,139,69,1058,213,29709],"class_list":{"0":"post-357570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-bayley-hall","9":"tag-craig-lowndes","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-slot1","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-team-18"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}