Supercars star Chaz Mostert and British Rally ace Alister McRae are late inclusions for the Race of Champions spectacular at Sydney’s Accor Stadium, March 7-8.
Mostert, a two-time Bathurst 1000 winner and class winner at the Spa 24-hour and Daytona 24-hour, will be a replacement for Swedish driver Mattias Ekström who has had to withdraw from the event on medical grounds.
McRae will be a late substitution for his son, Max who was set to make his Race Of Champions debut before injuring his wrist in the first round of the British Rally Championship last weekend.
Mostert will now join seven-time Rallycross World Champion Johan Kristoffersson in a Team All Stars combination for Friday night’s ROC Nations Cup while McRae will be a direct replacement for his son at Team Great Britain and partner with former F-1 star David Coulthard.
Mostert won the Bathurst 1000 with Paul Morris in 2014 in a last-to-first classic and then won again in 2021 with Lee Holdsworth with Walkinshaw Andretti United, who he currently races with in the Supercars championship.
In the last 10 Supercars championships he has never finished worse than seventh in the title chase and has been third four of the last five seasons. He currently sits third in the 2025 championship after the opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park last week.
It is a big blow for Ekström who is the defending ROC Champion and who would have been shooting for a record fifth individual title in Sydney – the first time ROC has been held in the Southern Hemisphere.
Alister McRae is a former British and FIA Asia Pacific Rally Champion. He is the son of five-time British Rally Champion, Jimmy McRae, and the brother of 1995 World Rally Champion, the late Colin McRae.
Ironically, McRae filled in for his brother Colin alongside Coulthard at the 2007 Race of Champions held at Wembley Stadium, following Colin’s death just two months earlier.
There will now be eight countries and nine nationalities represented in the ROC Nations Cup on Friday night including Australia (x2), Germany, France, Norway, Great Britain, New Zealand, U.S.A. and Finland as well as the new All Stars line-up.
The 20 participating drivers will represent their respective countries/team in the ROC Nations Cup on Friday and then they will go head-to-head for the individual Champion of Champions crown on Saturday night on a spectacular side-by-side 1km asphalt track which is currently in the finishing stages of a seven-day 24/7 construction.
Team Germany, led by four-time F-1 champion Sebastian Vettel and former F-1 driver and F-2 champion Mick Schumacher, who currently competes in WEC, heads the ROC Nations Cup lineup.
As host nation, Australia will be represented by two teams. The first will be Team Australia Supercars headed by seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup and reigning title holder Will Brown, while Team Australian Off-Road will comprise rally ace Molly Taylor and two-time Dakar winner, Toby Price.
All 20 drivers will battle it out Head-to-Head in 2 identical cars in each heat. They have to prove themselves in a range of six vehicles including the FC2 Rallycross, Supercar Lite Rallycross, KTM X-Bow Comp R, Polaris RZR Pro R, Subaru BRZ tS and Toyota GR86 Cup machines.
