"Young Talent Up the Front, Top Drivers Outside the Top 10" — Crooke Warns the Field Is Getting Serious

Dean Crooke has watched every Australian Drivers' Championship race since the Hyper Racer X1 era began. He knows exactly what a good round looks like. And when he says the 2025 Winton finale was the best he'd ever seen, it's worth paying attention.

"The Hankook Australian Drivers' Championship field is so strong — the last round of 2025 I thought was probably our best round ever," Crooke said in January. "The whole field's doing such a good job. If a top driver is having an off weekend, they are outside the top 10."

That's the thing about spec racing done well: the competition level doesn't just keep pace with talent — it exposes it. When every car is identical, there are no mechanical excuses. A bad weekend is a bad weekend, and in the ADC, bad weekends now mean dropping outside the top ten in a twenty-car field.

For 2026, Crooke sees the depth only increasing. The series has attracted drivers from Formula Ford, Superkarts, Formula Vee and other open-wheel categories. The lease drive model has opened the door for talented younger drivers who couldn't otherwise afford the entry ticket. And word of mouth — from competitors, from motorsport media, and increasingly from fans who've watched the SBS and Kayo coverage — continues to build the series' profile.

"We're now a seriously competitive race category," Crooke said. "There's a lot of young talent up the front of this field. I can't wait for the season to start — it's going to be on."

Anyone thinking 2026 might be another Damon Sterling parade should probably listen to Crooke very carefully.