In a weekend dominated by rain and safety cars, young Kiwi talent Ben Stewart kept his cool and navigated the chaos to emerge from the final Australia GR Cup race of the 2025 season in control.
Race 1:
After qualifying 11th, Ben Stewart lined up on the left of row six for Race 1. He launched well and held his position off the line as Isaac Demellweek, who started alongside him, slipped backwards.
Cooper Barnes then dived up the inside into the next corner to challenge for position. Stewart gave him a small tap as Barnes ran wide, but the Kiwi ultimately surrendered 10th place in the exchange.
Stewart settled into 11th for several laps before Zane Rinaldi closed in and made a move. Stewart immediately crossed back in front to defend and managed to keep him behind—at least initially.
Just ahead, Barnes ran off the circuit and tumbled four spots, handing Stewart a free position as the earlier rival rejoined behind him.
Further back, Harrison Blanchard and Craig Thornton made heavy contact, both spinning wildly. Blanchard was tagged again by Thornton mid-spin and struck the front of his car hard, but he avoided the wall and was able to continue.
With four minutes remaining, the safety car was deployed to retrieve Blanchard’s stranded car from the middle of the track. With no chance for a restart, the race finished under caution. Stewart crossed the line in 11th—one place down—after Rinaldi slipped back ahead just moments before the safety car was called.
Race 2:
Set to start from second, Zach Bates suddenly peeled into pit lane as the field formed on the grid, forcing his team into last-minute repairs. His teammate Jack Perkins also remained in the lane initially, but managed to join the race from the control line.
Stewart made an excellent getaway, jumping ahead of Zane Rinaldi and immediately slotting into a tightly packed fight. Up the road, Hugo Simpson and Hayden Hume ran side by side, with Stewart tucked right in behind them.
As Simpson edged clear, Stewart tried to slip alongside Hume, but couldn’t quite stay there as Hume held firm. Rinaldi then followed Hume through, reclaiming the spot from Stewart and dropping the Kiwi back one position.
A few minutes later, Stewart countered with a strong move, edging alongside Rinaldi through a corner to take the place back. But as the pair ran to the right-hander, Cooper Barnes dived down the inside, sweeping past both drivers to snatch 10th.
Stewart stayed close behind, and both he and Barnes moved past Brock Stinson when the latter struck trouble on the following lap. At the next corner, Stewart briefly slipped ahead of Barnes as well, but Barnes immediately crossed back to reclaim the position.
Moments later, Rinaldi recovered the places he’d lost and powered back past Stewart, dropping the Kiwi to 11th.
From there, Stewart held steady, maintaining around a one-second buffer to the cars behind for much of the remaining laps. But in the final minutes, Jordan Freestone began chipping away at the gap.
On the last lap, Freestone finally found a way through, taking 11th and pushing Stewart back to 12th at the flag. The Kiwi would line up from that position for the season’s final race.
Race 3:
As the field formed up for the final race of the Australian GR Cup season, the skies opened and torrential rain began hammering the circuit.
Stewart held onto 12th off the line as drivers cautiously tried to keep their cold, slippery cars on track.
The rain claimed its first victims at Turn 1 on lap two. Hugo Simpson aquaplaned, lost control, and spun rapidly across the circuit, clipping Pip Casabene and sending both cars into the gravel. Just ahead, race leader Taylor also ran wide and skimmed through the trap.
After the damaged cars were recovered, the race restarted with just over seven minutes remaining. Visibility was dire, with drivers going four-wide down the front straight while those behind were blinded by sheets of spray.
Stewart gained a place when Oliver Wickham ducked into pit lane—an intentional move to safely secure the single point he needed to clinch the championship.
The conditions continued to wreak havoc. Nasr slid into the side of Jack Szewczuk, tipping him into a spin across the soaked grass. Fortunately, the contact was light enough for Szewczuk to rejoin, while Nasr limped back to the pits.
Now several seconds behind Hume in eighth, Stewart finally had some clear vision and focused on keeping the cars behind him at bay.
In the closing laps, the leaders went three-wide into Turn 1 and all ran off the road, allowing Anderson to charge from third into the lead.
Right at the end, Stewart was overtaken by Lachlan Evernett, dropping the Kiwi to 10th, where he would finish the final race of the campaign.
At just 16 years old, Wickham sealed the championship—remarkably, without winning a single race all season, a feat last achieved in 1999.
