2026 Carrera Cup season reaches halfway point at The Bend

Porsche Equity-One Carrera Cup Australia returns to Tailem Bend this weekend, with Harri Jones leading Clay Osborne in the battle for the Championship after 3 rounds.

The 3.41km West Circuit layout at The Bend will host round 4 of the Championship, with a field of 25 cars entered for the event.

Jones comes into this weekend with a 56 point lead over Osborne, having won the opening round in Melbourne and claiming the round victory at Ipswich last time out. Osborne claimed his maiden championship round win at round 2 in Darwin back in June.

Meanwhile, DNA Autosport’s Jacque Jarjo has taken the lead in the battle for the Pro-Am Championship, after coming home 3rd for the round at QR

Jarjo leads Matt Belford by 3 points, with Matt Slavin, Rodney Jane and Liam Talbot following close behind, all vying to chase them down for championship glory.

KIWI STAR RETURNS

Marco Giltrap returns to Porsche Equity-One Carrera Cup Australia for his second round start for the year this weekend.

The 22-year-old is returning to the category, after missing round 3 at Queensland Raceway, following an outing at Carrera Cup Asia in Malaysia in early August, where he claimed pole position, 2 race wins and another podium.

It’s a return welcomed by Team Porsche New Zealand/EBM, who hope to continue the momentum from Queensland Raceway, where teammate Tom Bewley claimed his maiden pole position in the category.

WEEKEND FORMAT

The weekend will continue the same endurance style format seen at Darwin and Queensland Raceway with a pair of 45-minute races across Saturday and Sunday. The fastest laps from qualifying will set the grid for race one, with the second fastest laps forming the grid for race two.

DOUBLE DUTIES

Jones and David Russell will be performing double duties across the weekend, with the 2 drivers joining Jack Le Brocq and Jayden Ojeda respectively for the first of 2 Supercars enduro events.

Jones moves to Matt Stone Racing alongside Le Brocq, following a strong outing with Team 18 and Anton De Pasquale in 2025, where the pair finished 10th at in The Bend 500 and 20th in the Bathurst 1000.

Russell meanwhile is back at PremiAir Racing in 2026, pairing up with Ojeda, who replaced his former co-driver James Golding. Last year, that combination with Golding saw Russell score a Bathurst 1000 podium for the third time, and a 25th placed finish at The Bend.

JONES’ SLICE OF HISTORY

The Ipswich clean sweep for Jones means he now sits just one race win behind Jim Richards, who sits 3rd overall for Carrera Cup Australia race wins. A win for Jones this weekend will see him tie with ‘Gentlemen Jim’ in 3rd, whilst another weekend clean sweep will see him jump into 3rd outright with 32 race wins.

THE BEND 2025

Jones and Finnish/French driver Marcus Amand split the 2 sprint race victories, with Jones dominating the field by 7 seconds in the 45 minute endurance race.

In Pro-Am, Belford won the 2 sprint races, with Brett Boultan taking his maiden race win in Race 2.

Qualifying saw Jones and Amand battle it out, with the former claiming pole position by just 0.0392 seconds.

WEEKEND COVERAGE

The race weekend starts on Friday with two practice sessions, followed by qualifying and race one on Saturday and race two on Sunday.

ENTRY LIST

Round 4, Porsche Equity-One Carrera Cup Australia Championship.