JOBE Stewart heads to Bathurst very much in the box seat in the Super3 title race.
After a Sandown round that promised so much for title rival Cameron McLeod ultimately ended in a disastrous double DNF, Erebus Motorsport protege Stewart suddenly has a 138-point buffer with just two events remaining.
His nearest challenger now is Jett Johnson, with McLeod dropping all the way to 303 points off the lead.
The #92 Altima driver was on course for a remarkable outright sixth in Race 1 at Sandown before running out of fuel on the last lap, and then was tangled up in opening lap mayhem in Race 2.
ENTRY LIST: Bathurst Super2, Super3 fields set
Stewart admitted the situation had played nicely into his hands, even if “it’s not really how you want to do it”.
Now he’s eyeing joining the likes of Broc Feeney, Nash Morris and Brad Vaughan in the Super3 title club.
Beyond that, he hopes to follow in the footsteps of 2022 Super3 standouts Vaughan and Kai Allen, who have immediately become Super2 frontrunners.
“Next year the plan for me would be to go into Super2 and see what I can do there, similar to what Kai and Brad Vaughan did last year,” said Stewart, who drives for Image Racing but is a part of the Erebus Academy.
“But for the rest of this year just focus on winning the championship and we’ll sort out next year later.”
Allen is already a Super2 race winner and is second in the 2023 standings, while Vaughan has chalked up two pole positions and two second-place finishes.
Image and Erebus each are running a car in Super2 this year, for Jay Hanson and Jack Perkins respectively.
McLeod meanwhile is also well positioned to make the step up, potentially with the Blanchard Racing Team.
That is a logical option given the Racer Industries business of McLeod’s father Ryan has joined the CoolDrive fold, not to mention the fact the 18-year-old has already got a taste of a BRT Supercar. Furthermore, the Ford team’s current Super2 driver Aaron Love is in line to graduate to the main game.
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