How Todd Hazelwood went from Adelaide karts to a Bathurst 1000 win

Todd Hazelwood is an Australian racing driver whose career has run from karts and Formula Ford through Formula 3, the Super2 Series and Supercars. He won the Dunlop Super2 Series title in 2017 and shared the winning car at the 2024 Bathurst 1000, and he has more than 150 Supercars races behind him. He took the Trans Am Series title in 2024, and he has won the World Time Attack Challenge event in both 2025 and 2026.

His path was never a straight line. He had to fundraise to keep racing in 2011, and his first full Supercars season began with a chassis that his team struggled to adjust to. The results that followed show a driver who kept finding a way back.

How did Todd Hazelwood start racing?

He began karting at seven at the Adelaide Dirt Kart Club, moved into the juniors division at eight, and won three State Titles before switching to bitumen karts. A Formula Ford test at Winton Raceway came at the end of 2010, and he finished second on debut in the 2011 South Australian State Series.

Karting gave him a long apprenticeship. He won his first race meeting on bitumen in 2008 and went on to take five Open State Titles and four Closed State Titles. He also collected two pole positions at the Australian Titles, as well as big events in Melbourne and Adelaide.

The move into cars came through a selection process. Arrow Racing Karts put him forward, and for many of the karters on that test it was their first time in a racing car on an open circuit. Hazelwood impressed enough to be handed a race meeting in the 2011 state championship.

Then money became the problem. He and his family could not fund the rest of 2011, so he spent the year raising funds for 2012. That work paid off when he was chosen as a sponsored cool driver for the Victorian Formula Ford State Series. In fields that sometimes passed 40, he finished fourth overall in a chassis and engine combination that was among the oldest in the field.

From a struggling Supercars debut year to a Bathurst win, Hazelwood kept finding a way back.

Why did his 2013 Formula 3 season stand out?

In 2013 Hazelwood entered the Australian F3 National Championship, racing for R-Tek Motorsport in a Dallara F304, and stayed for the whole campaign to rank second in the standings as a rookie. His first pole position and first round win came at Sydney Motorsport Park.

That same year he also won the Shannons Supercar Showdown with Prodrive Racing Australia, which was then known as Ford Performance Racing. He was also given a one-off drive for Minda Motorsport at the season finale of the 2013 Dunlop V8 Supercar Series, so by the end of that year he had results in two categories.

The Super2 Series was the next step. In 2014 he joined Matt Stone Racing in a Ford FG Falcon, finished eighth overall and ranked first among the rookies. He recorded four top-five finishes, and the season also brought him the Mike Kable Young Gun Award.

What did the 2017 Super2 title prove?

The 2017 Dunlop Super2 title went to Hazelwood, who finished 95 points clear of Paul Dumbrell in a Holden VF Commodore run by Matt Stone Racing. He was consistently in the top ten in qualifying and in races, collecting six race wins and 13 podiums. Three pole positions and 14 front row starts completed a season built on consistency.

Before that title came a steady climb. In 2015 his first overall Super2 podium came at the Sydney 500, and he ended the series fourth. The following year he was third in the series and won the Supercars Privateers Cup, which goes to the highest-placed team or driver not linked to a main series team.

For 2016 he moved to a Holden VF Commodore built to the Car of the Future specification, and he stayed with that car for the whole of the 2017 season.

How did his Supercars debut go?

His Supercars debut came as a wildcard with Matt Stone Racing at Ipswich in 2017, where he placed 22nd and then 18th. He then shared an Enduro Cup entry with Tim Blanchard at the Sandown 500, but the car did not start after a major accident in the first qualifying race.

The endurance rounds that year were not much kinder. Hazelwood and Blanchard finished 12th at the Bathurst 1000, then produced 15th and 20th finishes at the Gold Coast 600, which left them 22nd in the Enduro Cup. It was a demanding introduction to the top category, and his first full-time season would bring problems of its own.

What went wrong at Matt Stone Racing in 2018?

Hazelwood moved to a full-time Supercars seat with Matt Stone Racing in 2018. The team had acquired an ex-DJR Team Penske Ford Falcon, and both driver and team struggled to adjust to it. He ended the year 26th in the standings, and his best result was 13th at the Newcastle 500.

A mid-season switch to a VF Commodore at The Bend SuperSprint did not change the picture much. At Bathurst he and Bryce Fullwood came home 20th and two laps down, after Fullwood ran wide into the sand at Murrays' Corner on lap 94.

The 2019 season brought better results. Hazelwood drove an ex-Jamie Whincup ZB Commodore, and Triple Eight Race Engineering provided technical support. He qualified in the Top 10 Shootout for the first time and took his first top-ten finish at the Adelaide 500. A career-best fifth at Pukekohe followed, and he ended his time with the team with a 10th at the Newcastle 500.

He came back to the team in 2022 after two seasons at Brad Jones Racing. The number 35 Truck Assist ZB Commodore started the year well, and he was inside the top ten of the standings after round five. Failures and unlucky incidents then pushed him down to 18th.

What did two seasons at Brad Jones Racing deliver?

Hazelwood joined Brad Jones Racing for 2020, filling the seat Tim Slade left for a co-driver role at DJR Team Penske. He took his maiden podium with third at Sydney Motorsport Park and his maiden pole at Townsville, and finished 17th in the points. He stayed for 2021 and finished 13th.

The 2020 season had a breakthrough feel to it. He fought for race wins at Sydney and Townsville, but a string of setbacks hurt his overall championship finish, and the points tally told only part of the story.

In 2021 he finished eighth at the Bathurst 1000 with Dean Fiore, his best result in that race at the time. Across the year he had 12 top-ten race results and four top-five results.

He then moved to Blanchard Racing for 2023, driving the number 3 Ford Mustang. That season was the first under the Gen3 platform, and the single-car team lost staff during the year. He was eighth after round four but finished 21st, though he reached the shootout for the top ten at Sandown 500 and Adelaide 500 late on.

How did the 2024 Bathurst 1000 win happen?

The 2024 Bathurst 1000 was won by Hazelwood and Brodie Kostecki in an Erebus Camaro. Kostecki took pole, and the pair led from start to finish in a race that finished in 5 hours and 58 minutes, the fastest in the event's history. It was Hazelwood's first Supercars race win.

The year started with a call-up. Hazelwood had been signed as a co-driver with Erebus Motorsport, the first such role since 2017, and was asked to fill in for reigning champion Brodie Kostecki at the start of the season. He raced the Bathurst 500 and the Australian Grand Prix weekend in the number 99 Camaro before Kostecki returned.

For the enduro season the team kept the two of them together, with Hazelwood taking the wheel of the number 1 Erebus car at the Sandown 500 and the Bathurst 1000. The Sandown race ended in disappointment. The pair were in podium contention when a mechanical failure put both drivers out.

Going into Bathurst they were determined to bounce back. Kostecki took pole, and once the race began neither driver looked back. The race had just one safety car period, and the result was the quickest the event had ever seen.

It was the first Bathurst 1000 finished in under six hours. For Hazelwood it was also a maiden Supercars race win, and it made him the 66th winner of the event.

What did the 2024 Trans Am title involve?

Hazelwood began his Trans Am campaign in 2024 with TFH Racing, in the number 111 Ford Mustang. He took seven wins and two poles over seven rounds, clinching the title at the Adelaide 500. He finished ahead of Gary Rogers Motorsport, which had won the series in each of the three previous seasons.

The result broke a run. Gary Rogers Motorsport had won the series in the three seasons before, and Hazelwood's team took the title from them in his first year in the category. Winning a championship in a debut season suggests he adapted quickly to a new kind of racing.

How quick was Hazelwood in World Time Attack?

Hazelwood's time attack debut came in 2025 at the World Time Attack Challenge, where Tanuki Racing ran him in a Nissan Silvia S13 at Sydney Motorsport Park. He set 1:18.169 in the superlap shootout, the fastest lap of the 2025 event, and returned in 2026 to win again in the rain.

The debut weekend nearly unravelled on the Thursday. A gear shift pressure pump problem affected the car in practice, and the team could only mend it temporarily, which limited his seat time. Even so, he set 1:21.093 on Friday to top the leaderboard.

He improved again on Saturday morning to 1:19.365. That night, in the superlap shootout, he set a personal best for the Silvia at 1:18.169 and claimed the fastest lap of the event.

The 2026 event was run in the rain, and Hazelwood took the win with a 1m19.303s lap. It was his second win at the event, following 2025.

Career results at a glance

Where does Hazelwood race now?

Hazelwood is a co-driver for Brodie Kostecki at Dick Johnson Racing, a role he began in 2025 and kept for 2026. When Kostecki was unwell, Hazelwood stood in for race 19 at the 2026 Darwin Triple Crown, qualifying 13th and finishing 12th.

That Darwin weekend was a full one. He had come to the event for his Trans Am commitments, which ran as a support category, and he had raced a Trans Am event earlier in the day before the Supercars call-up.

The 2025 season gave the team a win in the Enduro Cup. The Bend 500 was his first Enduro Cup win with the team, and he also took pole at the Bathurst 1000 that year. Joining the team had been a lifelong ambition for him.