Australian Auto Action

Ross Chastain has delivered Trackhouse Racing a timely Daytona pole position, while Shane van Gisbergen will start sixth as the team placed all three of its Chevrolets inside the top seven for the NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale. Chastain produced a 48.808s lap in the final round of qualifying for the Coke Zero Sugar 400, averaging 296.8km/h to beat RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher by 0.051s.

Shane van Gisbergen plans to start conservatively at Daytona, but the New Zealander knows his 30 point buffer can disappear quickly as he fights to secure his place in the NASCAR Cup Series Chase. Shane van Gisbergen heads into the NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale at Daytona with Ryan Preece the man he needs to keep behind him to secure his place in the Chase.

Carson Hocevar might be NASCAR’s answer to David Reynolds: quirky, funny, occasionally offbeat and seemingly incapable of delivering the standard media-trained line when there is a better one sitting there waiting to be used. But, as with Reynolds in Supercars, mistaking the personality for softness would be a serious error. Once the helmet goes on, Hocevar has a dose of white line fever about him.

Marco Bezzecchi has stunned the Marquez brothers to top Friday MotoGP practice at MotorLand Aragon, with the leading three riders separated by just 0.038s. The Aprilia Racing rider produced a 1m45.455s lap in the closing minutes to edge Alex Marquez and Marc Marquez in the closest top-three finish to a Friday practice session in MotoGP history. It was also a session in which the Aragon lap record was repeatedly rewritten as the fight for direct passage into Q2 came down to the final minutes.

The Australian Muscle Car Masters returns to Sydney Motorsport Park on 29-30 August 2026 for the first time in several years, with TCM taking top billing instead of its usual support role for the two-day meeting. Round 4 of the 2026 Touring Car Masters season arrives with Johnson well clear at the top of the standings. The four-time champion leads on 576 points, 65 clear of Scott Cameron, after a round win at Townsville in his Ford Mustang.

Jesse Dixon will return to national level motorsport competition for the first time in a decade after being called up to join Andrew Torti in the CAMM Quarries & Concrete Racing Toyota Supra for the next Monochrome GT4 Australia round at Sydney Motorsport Park. Dixon will replace regular co-driver Lachlan Evennett, who is unavailable for the LIQUI MOLY GT Festival Sydney due to a clash with his GT4 European Series commitments.

Shane van Gisbergen heads to Daytona with his NASCAR championship hopes in his own hands, but the equation is not quite as comfortable as a 31-point advantage might suggest. The New Zealander enters Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 holding the 16th and final position in NASCAR’s new-look Chase, with 586 points to Ryan Preece’s 555. There are three Chase positions still available, with Bubba Wallace 14th on 630 points, Austin Cindric 15th on 599 and van Gisbergen 16th.

The battle for the 2027 World Endurance Championship has begun months before Ford and McLaren actually line up on the grid, with both manufacturers reaching major milestones in the development of their new Hypercars. Ford has completed the first full-scale test of its new LMDh prototype at Paul Ricard in France, while McLaren has revealed its MCL-HY has already survived a 30-hour endurance simulation at MotorLand Aragón.

August will close out as one of the busiest months on the Motorsport Australia calendar, with almost 30 events scheduled across Australia this weekend. A wide range of disciplines including hillclimbs, rallying, circuit racing, khanacross, motorkhana and supersprints will give competitors and enthusiasts plenty of opportunities to get involved as the month draws to a close.

Team Kiwi Racing will return to the Supercars paddock at Bathurst with Brendon Leitch in Super2, as team owner David John sets his sights on a possible Supercars wildcard campaign in 2027. Team Kiwi Racing has confirmed New Zealander Brendon Leitch will race a Holden ZB Commodore in the Dunlop Super2 Series at Mount Panorama during the Repco Bathurst 1000 weekend on 8 to 11 October. But the Bathurst appearance could be the first step in something considerably bigger.