The 26-year-old, who took his first title in the category after a season-long battle with Shane van Gisbergen last year, is understood to be on the brink of parting ways with the team after a major disagreement with team management.
After the departure of Will Brown from the team at the end of last season to join Triple Eight, Erebus now faces the possibility of going into 2024 with two new drivers: Jack Le Brocq, who signed with the team last summer, and perhaps Todd Hazelwood.
Motorsport.com understands that there have been tensions within the Erebus team for some time, with Kostecki reportedly having a major fall-out with the squad on the eve of the Tailem Bend round in August of last year.
Ironically, that weekend saw Kostecki’s best performance of the season, scoring maximum points by winning all three races at the South Australian track.
It has been previously reported that Kostecki is under contract to Erebus for the remainder of the 2024 season and, as things stand, should he depart, it looks unlikely he would be released to join another team. That would mean that he would be unlikely participate even as a co-driver in the series’ endurance events, the Sandown 500 and the Bathurst 1000.
NASCAR plans?
Kostecki has been linked with a future in NASCAR and has already competed in a Cup race with Richard Childress Racing, running at the Indianapolis RC in August, 2023. He was scheduled to participate in up to five Cup events this year in a joint-venture entry between Erebus and Richard Childress Racing.
Team owner Richard Childress visited the Adelaide 500 Supercars event in November and spent time with the team, including taking a passenger ride with Kostecki in the Coca Cola-sponsored Camaro.
Kostecki has strong links with Australian businessman Peter Adderton, whose MobileX brand backed his NASCAR debut. The mobile phone company is undergoing major growth through its links with Walmart and looks to be ideally-placed to back any potential full-time switch to NASCAR racing.
With such upheaval so late in the season the Erebus team’s best prospect of a replacement driver appears to be Hazelwood. After winning the Super2 title in 2017 he has completed six seasons as a full-time Supercars driver, and has a full season’s experience with the new-for-2023 Gen3 racer. The 28-year-old drove Blanchard Racing Team’s Ford Mustang to 21st in the most recent Drivers’ Championship.
Erebus Motorsport has already undergone structural change for the upcoming season. It has named Brad Tremain as its new Team Principal, the team’s former Crew Chief reporting to team CEO Barry Ryan.
