The wait is over as the first round of the 2026 Australian Stock Car Championship season gets underway at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend (April 25-26, 2026).

Spectators can get in for free with the action starting at 6:30pm on Saturday and 2pm on Sunday.

Saturday will have two practice sessions, the first is at 7:40pm and the second will be held at 9:05pm.

Sunday will have Practice/Qualifying at 2:20pm and Race 1 is scheduled for 4:10pm and will run for 12 laps, Race 2 is scheduled for 6:30pm and will run for 12 laps and Race 3 is scheduled for 8:30pm and will run for 14 laps.

The racing takes place on the Druitt circuit, it is a 2.8km track, the cars will be doing a total of 106.4km of racing on Sunday.

Sponsors for the round are Zoom Auto Care, West Heidelberg Motors, Hart’s Automotive Services and Burgess Design and Build.

This round is a shared round, as Stock Cars Australia is sharing the track with AASA TT, a new series that undoubtedly grow over the course of the year.

The round will have coverage on Clay-Per-View and Elliot Barbour will be commenting, Elliot drives in Trans Am, has the successful Apex Hunters United podcast with Scott Pye and he has been the crew chief of the #41 Ford Thunderbird driven by Phil Muffet.

The Field

We will now take you through the field for this season opener.

The #3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will make its Australian Stock Car Championship debut with Richard White driving the car.

Hopefully sometime in the future we will see Scott Nind in the #34 Mustang, and we will have a Generation 6 battle between General Motors and Ford.

The #3 Chevrolet Lumina will be driven by Zac O’Hara, Zac is nervous, but we all know that he will do just fine and at the end of the round, the car will be loaded up in the RWR hauler in one piece.

Zac will tie Steve Coulter for third on the all-time race starts list if he races in all three races of the round, both will be on 75 race starts apiece.

The #19 Chevrolet Monte Carlo will be on the track with Daniel Stubbs driving it once again, fans will have to get used to the new look for the car as the black and blue look has been replaced by the blue and white Team Zentrix livery.

The #45 Dodge Challenger will once again be driven by Jeff Stubbs and they will be defending their title with a new Team Zentrix livery, gone is the grey and orange and in is blue and white with some black being retained.

Robert Marchese is in the #84 OzTruck once again, Robert has had more starts than anybody in the history of the category, if the remaining rounds have four races each and he starts every race of the season, the final race of the season will be his 100th and he’ll be the first person to do it.

Mick Heppleston worked hard over the offseason to prepare the #304 Chevrolet Silverado for the 2026 season; he had some help from Zac relating to mechanical and setup work, but what you see on the outside is all Mick.

There are four cars in the field that accepted an invitation to join in the round, there is Sam Gibson in the Hyundai Excel, there is Richard Hodgson in the Nissan Gazelle, there is Brett Hord in the Nissan 300ZX and OzTruck racer Brendan O’Connor will be in a Ford.

Ten cars plus the AASA TT field will ensure the three races will not be light on action.

ASCN will keep readers updated on how the round is progressing as news comes to hand.