Trackside report: Supercars 2025 kickstart in Sydney

The 2025 Repco Supercars season kicked off in Sydney recently, with a new defending champion, new championship layout, and new drivers.

Season 2025 looks like it will be a big one.  

The weekend’s festivities weren’t limited to the racetrack, with Chaz taking part in a track-to-town event, including driving across one of Australia’s most iconic landmarks, the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Thrifty Sydney 500 had a massive lineup, with three races, two Top 10 shootouts and a lot of drama. The teams underwent two test days on Wednesday and Thursday before the weekend commenced with the WAU team putting in a lot of laps around Sydney Motorsport Park tuning the cars up for the first race of the season.

Friday saw the first qualifying session of the year for the sprint race that was held later that evening. The Walkinshaw Andretti United team had a bit of trouble achieving a qualifying pace, scoring 8th position on the grid for the Mobil 1 Optus Racing Mustang, putting Chaz on the 4th row for the first race of 2025.  

It was lights out and the 2025 season was underway. Chaz was quick to create some moves, making positions up early. After completing his one compulsory pitstop it was a sprint to the finish. After being stuck in 4th for majority of the 26-lap race, the door was left open and one divebomb later Chaz found himself on the second step of the podium, finishing behind Tickford’s Cam Waters.

The first Top Ten Shootout was on Saturday. Then after a dramatic qualifying session with both Blanchard Racing Team cars coming together while leaving pitlane, all eyes focused in on the Top 10 shootout where Chaz and Ryan qualified P3 and P7 respectively. After a very aggressive start Chaz held his position going into turn 1 and stayed up the pointy end of the grid throughout the race. After a lot of bumps, spins, penalties and a drag race that crowned Cam Waters the winner once again (beating Red Bull’s Broc Feeney) Chaz came home to finish P4, with the top 6 separated by less than three seconds.

The final day of the Thrifty Sydney 500 had mixed weather conditions, even more spins, bumps and penalties, however the WAU team were able to capitalise on the madness. After a disappointing run in the shootout with a spin costing Chaz what could have been pole, he started from 10th on the grid. After 52 laps - the last 10 in the rain - the chequered flag was waved, with Chaz Mostert managing to bring it home P3, making it his 100th career podium and a great way to sign off the weekend.

Supercars next time out is at The Australian Grand Prix on 13-16 March, where the Formula One Championship kicks off its 2025 season, and the Repco Supercars Championship picking up where they left off in the Sprint Cup.

Read Ella’s previous report on the Gold Coast 500.

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Ella Dingwall is a high school student with dreams of becoming a motorsport journalist.