Round 1 of the 2026 Australian Stock Car Championship season started on the night of April 25th, 2026.

Joining us for this round recap is Brad Burgess, Brad was our pit reporter across the weekend, our version of Jon Beekhuis or Jack Arute from those great CART/Champ Car days.

The round saw the debut of the AASA Nationals series, the races were streamed on Clay-Per-View for the first time, it was also the debut of the #3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, the new Team Zentrix liveries, and Elliot Barbour was making his commentating debut.

Zac O’Hara was back in a race car driving the renumbered #3 Lumina, for this round it was the #31.

Two-time race winner Sam Gibson was back in the field but this time he would be driving a Hyundai Excel as part of the invited field.

The championship had sponsors for the round with Zoom Auto Care, West Heidelberg Motors, Hart’s Automotive Services and Burgess Design and Build being the sponsors.

Practice 1 and 2

Saturday night was the night for practice and the field taken the time to get some laps into the cars for the full-on Sunday action.

Practice session 1 was a battle between the Stubbs, Jeff Stubbs in the #45 Dodge Challenger taken top spot from Daniel Stubbs by just 0.0033 seconds with a time of 1:12.4040.

Third was Mick Heppleston, fourth was Zac O’Hara, fifth was Brendan O’Connor, Robert Marchese was sixth, Sam Gibson was seventh, followed by Richard Hodgson in eighth and Richard White rounded out the field in ninth.

Practice Session 2 was dominated by Daniel Stubbs who led the pack with a time of 1:09.8373, second fastest was Zac O’Hara, third was Mick Heppleston, fourth was Brendan O’Connor, fifth was Robert Marchese, sixth was Sam Gibson, seventh was Richard Hodgson and Richard White was eighth thanks to a mechanical issue.

Those who looked at Brendan O’Connor’s #10 Ford Falcon may have noticed that the back plate read ‘WTF’, the #10 looked mighty fine out there on the track.

The #45 Dodge Challenger had a steering rack issue and the #3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 had a fuel issue that forced it off the track in Practice 2.

Sunday

Good conditions greeted the field on Sunday with all cars getting through the Saturday sessions

The Team Zentrix cars of defending champion Jeff Stubbs (#45 Dodge Challenger) and Daniel Stubbs (#19 Chevrolet Monte Carlo) caught the eye of race fans with their new liveries being a big success.

Our pit reporter reported that everything was relaxed whilst waiting for Qualifying but that was soon to change.

Qualifying

Richard White’s weekend was starting to go from bad to worse, the #3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was coming out of Turn 5 when it spun out, slid through the grass and into the wall, Richard was able to drive the car back to the pits and the RWR team got to work on the car.

Sam Gibson had an interesting qualifying session in his Hyundai Excel as the boot came up on the car and he made his way to the pits for it to be securely shut, and he was quickly back on track.

Jeff Stubbs won pole position in the SCA field after setting a lap time of 1:08.8215.

Starting second would be Daniel Stubbs, starting third would be Robert Marchese, starting fourth would be Brendan O’Connor, starting from fifth would be Mick Heppleston, starting sixth would be Zac O’Hara, Richard Hodgson would start the race in seventh, Sam Gibson would start the race in eighth and starting Race 1 in ninth is Richard White.

Pre-Race 1

The news before Race 1 was good, the RWR team got the #3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 repaired in time to start the race at the back of the field.

Race 1

Race 1 got underway after a delayed start, the Stubbs maintained their positions on the track as AASA TT Porsche and Lamborghini streaked ahead of everybody.

Robert Marchese briefly challenged for the lead and Brendan O’Connor had a few wild moments as his Ford got extremely loose but the #10 AU Falcon settled down and racing continued.

Richard White meanwhile was starting to pick off the field one by one in the car that he had only got six laps around the track in leading up to the race.

By lap 3, the race order was Daniel Stubbs, Jeff Stubbs, Brendan O’Connor, Robert Marchese, Richard White, Mick Heppleston, Richard Hodgson and Sam Gibson.

A mechanical issue parked the #31 after three laps and repairs were underway.

Daniel Stubbs had it easy in the lead though he did have to contend with the third placed AASA TT runner Ben McLeod in the #72 Holden Commodore, the red commodore was sticking close to the #19 Chevrolet Monte Carlo lap after lap.

By lap 5, the running order was Daniel Stubbs, Jeff Stubbs, Brendan O’Connor, Richard White, Robert Marchese, Mick Heppleston, Richard Hodgson and Sam Gibson.

Jeff Stubbs comfortably held second position though he did have a challenger closing the gap, it was the #3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 after Richard passed Brendan O’Connor for the position.

The battle of the race belonged to Robert Marchese and Brendan O’Connor, the two fought over fourth position with Robert finishing just under two seconds ahead of Brendan (fifth) in the #10 Ford AU Falcon and Mick Heppleston only a few seconds behind them in sixth, all three had best laps in the 1 minute 13 second bracket.

Seventh was Richard Hodgson in the #142 Nissan Gizelle followed by Sam Gibson in eighth and Zac O’Hara rounded out the field due to the early retirement.

Brad Burgess reported after the race that the #3 Camaro was still having its fuel issue, the carby was taken off the #31 Lumina and the #45 was misfiring.

Jeff Stubbs reported that he ran Race 1 on six cylinders, the team had OzTruck racer Danny Burgess on hand to help them out in getting the car ready for Race 2.

The #31 Lumina, the #45 Dodge Challenger and the #3 Camaro were all good to go for Race 2.

Race 2

Race 2 saw Daniel Stubbs lead the field and Richard White slotted into second position ahead of Jeff Stubbs.

The field was under yellow flag conditions when the AASA TT #227 spun out going through Turn 5 and ended up hitting the wall.

Richard White got a great restart and slotted into the lead with Daniel Stubbs right behind him, they were followed by the AASA TT car driven by Ben McLeod, that red Commodore of his hung around the #19 all race long.

Daniel Stubbs retaken the lead on Lap 8 and Ben McLeod followed him past Richard White as Jeff Stubbs settled in right behind the #3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

Ben McLeod got past Daniel Stubbs, but it did not matter as the two were in different categories, behind them Jeff Stubbs continued to challenge Richard White but was unsuccessful in making it a Stubbs 1-2 finish.

Robert Marchese and Mick Heppleston had fourth and fifth secured all race long and Zac O’Hara moved up from eighth to sixth position.

Sam Gibson finished in seventh position and Richard Hodgson rounded out the field in eighth position.

Race 3

Daniel Stubbs led the SCA field to the green flag and another battle with Ben McLeod and his AASA TT #72 Holden Commodore was again on the cards but a few turns later the #72 went wide and spun right into the path of the #3 Camaro.

Richard put the #3 onto the grass but unfortunately Ben McLeod had the same idea of putting his car on the grass to get out of the way of the pack and the two collided.

The result was front right damage to the #3 Camaro and while it was driven back into the pits, it was race over for the team.

The race continued on without a caution and Daniel Stubbs was soon well clear of Jeff Stubbs; while that was going on, the field was being rapidly being prepared to be lapped by the AASA TT Porsche and Lamborghini.

Robert Marchese who ran a solid round as usual was in a round high of third position, it was his at the start and it was his by the end of it.

Mick Heppleston who started the race in sixth made it up to fifth with the retirement of the #3 Chevrolet Camaro and by lap 5, the #304 Chevrolet Silverado moved up to fourth position.

Zac O’Hara was having his best race in the #31 Lumina; he was briefly in fourth position before holding down fifth position for the rest of the race.

The battle of the race was between Richard Hodgson and Sam Gibson, the former in a Nissan Gazelle held off the Hyundai Excel by just 0.0395 seconds.

The caution came out when #11 AASA TT driven by Simon Kendrick caught fire, the race was then red flagged, and the vehicles went to pit lane with most heading straight into their garages and with that Daniel Stubbs had swept the weekend.

Jeff Stubbs finished second, Robert Marchese finished third, Mick Heppleston finished in fourth, Zac O’Hara finished in fifth, sixth was Richard Hodgson, seventh was Sam Gibson and eighth was Richard White.

Post-Race

Riccardo Benvenuti taken some fine photographs of the action over the course of the weekend, check them out above.

After every round, it is time for presentations, speeches and some food and drink, not only was it the start of the racing season but it was also birthday season with a couple of birthdays occuring right before the season opener.

One of the strengths of Stock Cars Australia is that if a competitor is in trouble, others from the many fine teams will come over and help them, Danny Burgess is seen above being honoured for his work over the weekend.

Packing went on into the night with the above taken just before 11:30pm.

Coming up next in the 2026 Australian Stock Car season is The Bend on June 6 and 7 followed by One Raceway on June 20 and 21 in what shapes up to be a super June of Stock Car action.

Thank you for joining us in this recap, we hope to see you again soon.