{"id":98502,"date":"2025-10-24T11:35:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/98502\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T11:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:35:12","slug":"supercars-news-andrew-jones-slams-absolute-rubbish-jackson-walls-detractors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/98502\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Andrew Jones slams ‘absolute rubbish’ Jackson Walls detractors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\u2018Absolute
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJackson Walls will join Triple Eight Race Engineering in the Repco Supercars Championship in 2026. Image: InSyde Media<\/p>\n

It was confirmed this week that the first-year Super2 driver will graduate to the Supercars main game next year in the SCT Logistics-backed third Triple Eight car<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The opportunity to step into what should be a race-winning package comes off the back of a debut Super2 season with Triple Eight that yielded a win at Queensland Raceway<\/a>, while Walls currently sits fifth in the points.<\/p>\n

The relative lack of runs on the board compared to the likes of Super2 champion Zach Bates and current Super2 points leader Rylan Gray has prompted commentary that there is a funding element to the Walls deal.<\/p>\n

However, Jones, who runs SCT\u2019s motorsport program, is adamant that it was a signing made on talent alone, inspired by famous US sports promoter Sonny Vaccaro.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an interesting one, isn\u2019t it?\u201d said Jones of the commentary around the Walls deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like sitting on the fence. Some of the stuff I\u2019ve seen this week is\u2026 just because people have opinions in this sport does not mean it\u2019s factual.<\/p>\n

\t\tGold Coast 500 Greenroom Afterparty at Cali Beach – Sunday 26th October. VIP Booths available – Click here<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, opinions, I love them, great, get them out there, it will push everyone to be better. But don\u2019t hand them out like there are facts attached to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went through the process; there were five guys that were on our radar. I\u2019m a methodical person, super unemotional about this. I had a Sonny Vaccaro moment at Ipswich.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, race two, the guy that started on pole set his intention pretty heavily on the run to Turn 1 and was able to win that race having not been in that position all year. That for me was a catalyst to go, this guy has just gone up the pecking order in our world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to Barry [Ryan] a little bit about it this morning and he\u2019s got cool stuff across the last few years that has happened at Erebus. He has the ability to see people ahead of the curve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to have a punt on this one. I feel we\u2019re ahead of the curve here and [we will] back this guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd just because people want to bring up absolute rubbish about why he\u2019s in that seat, go your hardest. For me, it\u2019s important that we bring the right person in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walls is the 22-year-old son of billionaire Tony Walls, whose Objective Corporation software business has backed the youngster\u2019s racing career to date.<\/p>\n

Jones added that signing Walls had the full backing of T8 boss Jamie Whincup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was line ball between two guys. Jamie and I got together and there is full support from within Triple Eight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to [Whincup] for counsel on that decision and we\u2019re all in together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there going to be some work? Absolutely, there always is when you bring a rookie into this championship, it\u2019s incredibly tough. The first six months of next year we will work our butts off.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistory will tell if we made the right decision or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jackson Walls will join Triple Eight Race Engineering in the Repco Supercars Championship in 2026. Image: InSyde Media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[68409,111,139,69,216,213,21403],"class_list":{"0":"post-98502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-jackson-walls","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-slot3","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-triple-eight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98502","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=98502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}