Three-Peat on the Cards: Sterling Enters 2026 as Back-to-Back ADC Champion

Two championships in two seasons. Sixteen wins, seven seconds, and four pole positions across 24 races in 2025 alone. By any measure, Damon Sterling has been the dominant force of the AASA-era Australian Drivers' Championship — and he's not done yet.

Sterling, racing for Ironclad ID, enters 2026 as back-to-back champion with something to prove that transcends points. A third consecutive title would cement his place as the defining driver of the Hyper Racer era, a period that has already produced some of the most competitive open-wheeler racing Australia has seen in decades.

It won't be straightforward. The 2025 season featured several drivers who showed genuine speed to match Sterling on their day — Hayden Crossland, Dean Crooke, and newcomer Bradley Smith among them. The expanded 2026 field, expected to push past 20 cars, will bring fresh challengers from karts and other single-seater categories.

Sterling's record suggests he relishes competition rather than fears it. In 2025 he clinched the title with a round to spare — but not without resistance. Crossland pushed him hard in the early rounds before reliability issues intervened. French was a persistent threat. Smith appeared from nowhere to challenge at One Raceway and never really went away.

The champion's response to every challenge was the same: fast, measured, clinical. Sterling knows the ADC car intimately, knows which circuits suit his style, and knows how to put a championship season together.

History says three-peats are rare. Damon Sterling's recent form says anything is possible.