Australian motor racing team
The Erebus run
Mercedes-AMG GT3
driven by
Peter Hackett
,
Lee Holdsworth
and
Tim Slade
.
Erebus Motorsport
(formerly known as
Erebus Racing
) is an Australian
motor racing
team. The team competes in the
Supercars Championship
with two
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s
. The team's current drivers are
Brodie Kostecki
and
Jack Le Brocq
.
The team is owned by
Betty Klimenko
and is based in
Melbourne
. The team launched as a
GT
racing team in 2011 with the team joining Supercars in 2013 following the purchase of
Stone Brothers Racing
. The team is best known for winning the
2017 Bathurst 1000
with
David Reynolds
and
Luke Youlden
, and also won the
2013 Bathurst 12 Hour
.
Racing history
[
edit
]
A
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
prepared by Erebus Motorsport and driven by
Thomas Jager
, Alexander Roloff and
Bernd Schneider
to victory in the
2013 Bathurst 12 Hour
The team, then known as Erebus Racing, formed in 2011 when the team's first Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 car arrived from Europe. In the
2011 Australian GT Championship season
, early season problems, coupled with the car not being ready until Round 3,
[1]
limited driver Peter Hackett's championship run and he finished fourth. He did claim race wins at
Phillip Island
and at
Mount Panorama
along the way. Early 2012 provided the teams highlight to date, with second place in the
2012 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour
with V8 Supercar driver
Tim Slade
and European GT racers
Jeroen Bleekemolen
and
Bret Curtis
co-driving with Hackett.
The team expanded to a second car for the
2012 Australian GT Championship season
with former
V8 Utes
and
Nations Cup GT
racer James Brock (the son of the late nine-time
Bathurst 1000
winner
Peter Brock
) added as the second driver.
[2]
After a crash in the opening round at the
Clipsal 500
which put Hackett behind, he quickly got himself into the lead of the Championship. He led from round four through to the final round at
Homebush
, where he crashed in the opening race. He would go on to finish the championship in second place behind
Klark Quinn
.
Brock started the season strongly with a podium in Adelaide. A heavy crash at Phillip Island slid him down the order. After re-building the #62 from scratch, he suffered another crash at
Sydney Motorsport Park
, resulting in another write-off. For the remaining three events of the season, Brock was replaced by a group of European-based
AMG
Customer Sports factory drivers.
Maro Engel
.
[3]
was the first, winning the round at Phillip Island, before
FIA GT1 World Team Champion
,
Thomas Jager
joined the team. At the final round in Homebush, five times
DTM
Champion,
Bernd Schneider
joined the team and comprehensively dominated the weekend.
In February 2013, the team entered the
Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour
with its two Mercedes SLS AMG GT3s. #36 was piloted by Bernd Schneider, Thomas Jager and
Alex Roloff
, while car #63 was piloted by regular driver Peter Hackett and V8 Supercars drivers
Lee Holdsworth
and Tim Slade. It was car #63 that would take pole position on the Saturday, with Lee Holdsworth behind the wheel, with a 2.06.22, but could only finish the race in 6th position, five laps behind the race winners after an incident late in the race whilst leading. This left the #36 machine to take the team's first
Bathurst 12 Hour
victory and added this race to the
Dubai 24 Hour
victory for Schneider and the AMG Customer Sports program. They ended the dramatic race with a lead well over a lap on the second and third placed cars. Roloff had the honour to take the chequered flag surviving the mixed conditions without radio contact to the team. The team struggled in that year's
Australian GT season
, with
Jack Le Brocq
only managing ninth in the points.
In 2014, the team finished third in the
Bathurst 12 Hour
, with
Greg Crick
,
Will Davison
and
Jack Le Brocq
behind the wheel. Their other entry, driven by Maro Engel, set pole position and in doing so won the first
Allan Simonsen
Pole Position Trophy
.
[4]
In the
2014 Australian GT Championship
, Erebus won the title with
Richard Muscat
driving.
In the
2015 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour
, the team's leading entry was the
Dean Canto
, Le Brocq and Muscat SLS AMG, which finished in fifth position. In the
2016 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour
, the team's leading entry was the
Thomas Jager
, Nico Bastian and V8 Supercar driver
David Reynolds
SLS AMG, which finished in fifth position, A second SLS AMG was entered for Bernd Schneider,
Maro Engel
and
Austin Cindric
, however the car did not finish after Cindric hit the wall at the end of Mountain Straight.
After a period of scaling back of GT activities, the team prepared an entry at the
2019 Bathurst 12 Hour
which included their Bathurst 1000 winning combination of David Reynolds and Luke Youlden alongside Yasser Shahin.
[5]
Supercars Championship
[
edit
]
Mercedes-Benz E63 W212
of
Maro Engel
at the
Sydney Motorsport Park
test day in 2013.
Mercedes-Benz E63 W212
of
Lee Holdsworth
at the
Sydney Motorsport Park
test day in 2014.
2017 Bathurst 1000
Winning
Holden VF Commodore
.
The
Holden ZB Commodore
of
David Reynolds
at the 2018 Newcastle 500.
The
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
of
Will Brown
at the
Sydney Motorsport Park
test day in 2023.
In September 2012, Erebus Motorsport announced it was in the process of purchasing
Stone Brothers Racing
and would enter the
2013 International V8 Supercars Championship
, competing with three
Mercedes-Benz E63 W212s
entered under the category's new
"Car of the Future" regulations
. The sale was finalised in January 2013,
[6]
with the team purchasing one Racing Entitlement Contract (REC) and leasing a second from the Stone Brothers,
[7]
whilst operating a third car on behalf of satellite team
James Rosenberg Racing
. With
Shane van Gisbergen
leaving the team at the end of the
2012 season
, Erebus recruited former DTM driver Maro Engel as his replacement, whilst retaining Lee Holdsworth and Tim Slade in the other two cars.
[
citation needed
]
For
2014
, the team scaled back to a two-car operation with the James Rosenberg Racing REC and Tim Slade both moving to
Walkinshaw Racing
.
[8]
[9]
Will Davison replaced Maro Engel.
[10]
Lee Holdsworth scored the team's first race win at
Winton
in April 2014.
[11]
In
2015
,
Ashley Walsh
replaced Lee Holdsworth as the driver for Car #4.
[12]
Will Davison secured the team's second V8 Supercar race win at the
2015 Ubet Perth Super Sprint
at
Barbagallo Raceway
.
[13]
The team operated from the team from the former Stone Brothers Racing premises in
Yatala
on the
Gold Coast
until the end of the 2015 season, when it moved its V8 Supercars and GT operations under one roof in
Moorabbin
, Melbourne.
[14]
This was replaced by a new facility in Dandenong in mid-2016 after its previous facility became too small.
[15]
David Reynolds
replaced Will Davison for the
2016 Championship
, with Davison moving to
Tekno Autosports
.
[16]
Reynolds was joined by
Aaren Russell
with the team switching from running the E63 W212s to a pair of
Holden Commodore VFs
.
[17]
[18]
Russell split with the team after the Townsville 400 round, and was replaced by
Craig Baird
for Ipswich.
Shae Davies
raced the teams #4 Entry for the remainder of the 2016 Season.
[19]
For 2017, Reynolds remained with the team, while
Dale Wood
replaced Davies as the driver of the newly renumbered #99 Entry.
[20]
Reynolds, partnered with
Luke Youlden
, won the rain-affected
2017 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000
, while the second car of Wood - partnered by
Chris Pither
- finished a season-best 4th. In October 2017, Wood announced that he would no longer be continuing his full-time drive with the team into 2018. His replacement will be
2017 Dunlop Super2 Series
competitor,
Anton de Pasquale
. In 2018, Reynolds won three races and finished fifth in the championship with de Pasquale 20th in his debut year.
[
citation needed
]
In 2019,
Penrite
, a sponsor of the team since 2015, increased its sponsorship to both cars and took over title sponsorship of the team.
[21]
Reynolds finished sixth in the championship and de Pasquale 14th.
[22]
In 2021,
Will Brown
and
Brodie Kostecki
replaced Reynolds and De Pasquale. Also
Boost Mobile
partnered with Erebus Motorsport for naming rights branding on the #99 Car of Kostecki for a full season in the Championship. This led to a full naming rights sponsorship in 2022, where Boost Mobile became naming rights sponsor of the entire team including Will Brown's #9 car. The team was known as Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus. A Wild Card entry to Bathurst was also announced for 2021, dragging out Greg Murphy from retirement, With Richie Stanaway to partner him. Greg Murphy is a long time friend of Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton. This did not go ahead in 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions but went ahead in 2022, Stanaway and Murphy finished 11th, after starting 4th.
In December 2022,
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
purchased the naming rights sponsorship, with the team renamed as Coca-Cola Racing by Erebus for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
[23]
Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki remained with the team. The team also swapped to running the
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
as the championship moved to the
Gen 3 Regulations
.
[24]
In 2023, Brodie Kostecki won the Driver's Championship with Erebus, as well as the team winning the Team's championship. Brown left at the end of 2023 for
Red Bull Ampol Racing
, and was replaced by
Jack Le Brocq
.
In early February 2024, just weeks before the season opening Bathurst 500, Series champion
Brodie Kostecki
parted ways with the team after rumours swirled about how Kostecki was being treated by the team internally. Further, naming rights sponsor Coca-Cola, as well as Shaw and Partners, and SCTR withdrew their financial support of the team. Kostecki was replaced by
Todd Hazelwood
at the 2024 season opening round, thus reuniting with former
Matt Stone Racing
teammate
Jack Le Brocq
. On April 7, 2024, it was announced that Kostecki would rejoin the team at the Taupo round, and Hazelwood, who also drove in the Melbourne round, would revert to his role as an endurance co-driver.
[25]
Other
[
edit
]
Guy Stewart formerly drove the team's Aurion-Yamaha in the
Aussie Racing Cars
series, and the team was also involved in a
V8 Utes
team with
Adam Marjoram
driving. The team formerly ran a
Mygale
F3
car labelled
Erebus Academy
, racing in
Australian Formula 3
with
Jack Le Brocq
driving. Members of the Erebus Academy development program have included Le Brocq, Adam Marjoram and
Richard Muscat
.
On October 2, 2023, the team announced that they had plans to compete in select races with Kostecki in the
NASCAR Cup Series
in a partnership with
Richard Childress Racing
in 2024.
[26]
Supercars Championship drivers
[
edit
]
The following is a list of drivers who have driven for the team in the Supercars Championship, in order of their first appearance. Drivers who only drove for the team on a part-time basis are listed in italics.
Racing results
[
edit
]
Car No. 9 results
[
edit
]
Car No. 99 results
[
edit
]
Bathurst 1000 Results
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Scheduled events
|
---|
|
- Events in
italics
are two-driver endurance races
| Teams and drivers contesting the championship
|
---|
| | |
|
|