 | |
| Manufacturer | Chevrolet |
|---|---|
| Team Principal | Betty Klimenko |
| Team Manager | Barry Ryan |
| Race Drivers | 9.Jack Le Brocq 99.Cooper Murray |
| Race Engineers | 9. Aidan Graham[1] 99. Wayne Mackie[1] |
| Data Engineers | Daniel Frenchman |
| Chassis | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| Debut | 2013 |
| Drivers' Championships | 1 (2023) |
| Teams' Championships | 1 (2023) |
| Race wins | 8 |
| Pole positions | 7 |
| 2020 position | 5th (3129 pts) |
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Erebus Motorsport (formerly known asErebus Racing) is an Australianmotor racing team. The team competes in theSupercars Championship with twoChevrolet Camaro ZL1s. The team's current drivers areJack Le Brocq andCooper Murray.
The team is owned byBetty Klimenko and is based inMelbourne. The team launched as aGT racing team in 2011 with the team joining Supercars in 2013 following the purchase ofStone Brothers Racing. The team is best known for winning the2017 Bathurst 1000 withDavid Reynolds andLuke Youlden, and also won the2013 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 the2011 Australian GT Championship season, early season problems, coupled with the car not being ready until Round 3,[2] limited driver Peter Hackett's championship run and he finished fourth. He did claim race wins atPhillip Island and atMount Panorama along the way. Early 2012 provided the teams highlight to date, with second place in the2012 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour with V8 Supercar driverTim Slade and European GT racersJeroen Bleekemolen andBret Curtis co-driving with Hackett.
The team expanded to a second car for the2012 Australian GT Championship season with formerV8 Utes andNations Cup GT racer James Brock (the son of the late nine-timeBathurst 1000 winnerPeter Brock) added as the second driver.[3] After a crash in the opening round at theClipsal 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 atHomebush, where he crashed in the opening race. He would go on to finish the championship in second place behindKlark 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 atSydney Motorsport Park, resulting in another write-off. For the remaining three events of the season, Brock was replaced by a group of European-basedAMG Customer Sports factory drivers.Maro Engel.[4] was the first, winning the round at Phillip Island, beforeFIA GT1 World Team Champion,Thomas Jäger joined the team. At the final round in Homebush, five timesDTM Champion,Bernd Schneider joined the team and comprehensively dominated the weekend.
In February 2013, the team entered theLiqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour with its two Mercedes SLS AMG GT3s. #36 was piloted by Bernd Schneider, Thomas Jäger andAlex Roloff, while car #63 was piloted by regular driver Peter Hackett and V8 Supercars driversLee 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 firstBathurst 12 Hour victory and added this race to theDubai 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'sAustralian GT season, withJack Le Brocq only managing ninth in the points.
In 2014, the team finished third in theBathurst 12 Hour, withGreg Crick,Will Davison andJack Le Brocq behind the wheel. Their other entry, driven by Maro Engel, set pole position and in doing so won the firstAllan Simonsen Pole Position Trophy.[5] In the2014 Australian GT Championship, Erebus won the title withRichard Muscat driving.
In the2015 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, the team's leading entry was theDean Canto, Le Brocq and Muscat SLS AMG, which finished in fifth position. In the2016 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, the team's leading entry was theThomas Jäger, Nico Bastian and V8 Supercar driverDavid Reynolds SLS AMG, which finished in fifth position, A second SLS AMG was entered for Bernd Schneider,Maro Engel andAustin 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 the2019 Bathurst 12 Hour which included their Bathurst 1000 winning combination of David Reynolds and Luke Youlden alongside Yasser Shahin.[6]
In September 2012, Erebus Motorsport announced it was in the process of purchasingStone Brothers Racing and would enter the2013 International V8 Supercars Championship, competing with threeMercedes-Benz E63 AMGs entered under the category's new"Car of the Future" regulations. The sale was finalised in January 2013,[7] with the team purchasing one Racing Entitlement Contract (REC) and leasing a second from the Stone Brothers,[8] whilst operating a third car on behalf of satellite teamJames Rosenberg Racing. WithShane van Gisbergen leaving the team at the end of the2012 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]
For2014, the team scaled back to a two-car operation with the James Rosenberg Racing REC and Tim Slade both moving toWalkinshaw Racing.[9][10] Will Davison replaced Maro Engel.[11] Lee Holdsworth scored the team's first race win atWinton in April 2014.[12]
In2015,Ashley Walsh replaced Lee Holdsworth as the driver for Car #4.[13] Will Davison secured the team's second V8 Supercar race win at the2015 Ubet Perth Super Sprint atBarbagallo Raceway.[14]
The team operated from the team from the former Stone Brothers Racing premises inYatala on theGold Coast until the end of the 2015 season, when it moved its V8 Supercars and GT operations under one roof inMoorabbin, Melbourne.[15] This was replaced by a new facility in Dandenong in mid-2016 after its previous facility became too small.[16]
David Reynolds replaced Will Davison for the2016 Championship, with Davison moving toTekno Autosports.[17] Reynolds was joined byAaren Russell with the team switching from running the E63 AMGs to a pair ofHolden Commodore VFs.[18][19] Russell split with the team after the Townsville 400 round, and was replaced byCraig Baird for Ipswich.Shae Davies raced the teams #4 Entry for the remainder of the 2016 Season.[20]
For 2017, Reynolds remained with the team, whileDale Wood replaced Davies as the driver of the newly renumbered #99 Entry.[21] Reynolds, partnered withLuke Youlden, won the rain-affected2017 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, while the second car of Wood - partnered byChris 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 be2017 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.[22] Reynolds finished sixth in the championship and de Pasquale 14th.[23]
In 2021,Will Brown andBrodie Kostecki replaced Reynolds and De Pasquale. AlsoBoost 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.[24] Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki remained with the team. The team also swapped to running theChevrolet Camaro ZL1 as the championship moved to theGen 3 Regulations.[25]
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 forRed Bull Ampol Racing, and was replaced byJack Le Brocq.
In early February 2024, just weeks before the season opening Bathurst 500, Series championBrodie 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 byTodd Hazelwood at the 2024 season opening round, thus reuniting with formerMatt Stone Racing teammateJack 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.[26]
Guy Stewart formerly drove the team's Aurion-Yamaha in theAussie Racing Cars series, and the team was also involved in aV8 Utes team withAdam Marjoram driving. The team formerly ran aMygaleF3 car labelledErebus Academy, racing inAustralian Formula 3 withJack Le Brocq driving. Members of the Erebus Academy development program have included Le Brocq, Adam Marjoram andRichard Muscat.
On October 2, 2023, the team announced that they had plans to compete in select races with Kostecki in theNASCAR Cup Series in a partnership withRichard Childress Racing in 2024.[27] The partnership will work the other way, with2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series finalistJesse Love driving for Image Racing, which organises Erebus' Super2 operations, at the Super2BP Adelaide Grand Final.[28]
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.
Lee Holdsworth (2013–14)Tim Slade (2013)
Maro Engel (2013)
Craig Baird (2013–14, 2016)Andrew Thompson (2013)Steven Johnson (2013)David Brabham (2013)Will Davison (2014–15)Alex Davison (2014–15)Ashley Walsh (2015)Jack Le Brocq (2015, 2024–2025)Dean Canto (2015)Aaren Russell (2016)David Reynolds (2016–20)Shae Davies (2016)Chris van der Drift (2016)Dale Wood (2017)Chris Pither (2017)Luke Youlden (2017–19)Anton de Pasquale (2018–20)Will Brown (2018–2023)Brodie Kostecki (2020–2024)Jack Perkins (2021–2023)David Russell (2021–2023)Greg Murphy (2022)Richie Stanaway (2022)Todd Hazelwood (2024)Jayden Ojeda (2024)Cooper Murray (2025–present)Jarrod Hughes (2025) Jobe Stewart (2025–present)