Race of Champions. It’s like gladiators with race cars, and saw Accor Stadium transformed over a two week period into a 1.6km two lane head-to-head track. It was the stage to decide 2025’s best nation and driver alike.
As one of the few independent publications invited to attend the inaugural Australian version at the venue normally used for NRL matches, we were expecting plenty of spectacle, and it certainly delivered on all fronts (except maybe Night One’s crowd).
A bad weather forecast saw a half empty stadium, which was a little disappointing, especially given the talent on hand, including Peta Solberg, David Coulthard, Sebastian Loeb, Sebastian Vettel, Mick Schumacher, Travis Pastrana and Kurt Busch.
The Aussie contingent included Toby Price, Chaz Mostert, Will Brown, Brodie Kostecki and Molly Taylor. For those that did attend, it was truly an epic event. It’s not often you get to see such a variety of cars ripping it up on a track only a few metres from the crowd.
Being in a stadium only added to the intense nature of the races, especially as the finals edged nearer and the stakes rose with every round. Night One was Race of Nations, a country versus country affair, that ended up with a dream finale.
Australia would take on France in a battle that went down to the wire in a final face off between Victor Martins and Will Brown (after he eliminated Loeb). The final was close, but Martins took the win for France.
Saturday saw the Race of Champions proper, where drivers were racing for themselves in the ultimate battle. After the parade lap, there was a touching tribute to Michael Shumacher (himself an RoC winner).
The emotions flowed for all the drivers, particularly Sebastian Vettel, Mick Shumacher (Michael’s son), and David Coulthard. With a larger crowd, the competitors seemed to find another gear as the night went on too.
Lap times came down and the drivers were pushing the envelope to the limits and beyond. In the end it came down to another France versus Australia final. This time it was Sebastian Loeb against Chaz Mostert in a best of three affair.
It was Loeb who would lift the trophy after some spectacular no-holds-barred racing from both drivers. Not to take anything away from the gigantic pool of talent at the event, but it is clear why Sebastian is regarded as one of the greatest rally drivers of all time.
He mastered pretty much every vehicle at the event – a list that included FC2 Rallycross, the KTM X-Bow Comp R, the Polaris RZR Pro R, Subaru BRZ tS, the entry-point Supercar Lite rally car, and the Toyota GR86.
I’m quite jealous! Great pictures too.