Team France took the win in ROC Nations Cup event for 2025 after they beat Team Australia in a tie-breaker in the finale.
In tonight’s opening group round it was Finland’s Valtteri Bottas and Heikki Kovalainen and Team Great Britain’s David Coulthard and Alister McRae who were eliminated. In the quarter finals Team Australia Off-Road’s Molly Taylor and Toby Price fell victim to Team Germany’s Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher and Team USA’s Kurt Busch and Travis Pastrana buckled to local favorites Brown and Kostecki. A big moment came for Kostecki when he missed the start against Busch, one of his NASCAR racing heroes, but who then closed up an enormous gap to clinch the race by 0.7 of a second.
Team Norway’s Petter and Oliver Solberg had the first-round bye as defending ROC Nations Cup champions, but they were eliminated by the All Star team of Chaz Mostert and Johan Kristoffersson while New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon and young 17 year-old Louis Sharp fell victim to Loeb and Martins. In the semi-final Team Australian Supercars faced early favourites Team Germany.
Brown lost his heat to Vettel, while Kostecki kept the home team in the show with a win against Schumacher. In a tie-break decider it was Kostecki who managed to get the better of Vettel in a Toyota 86 Cup Car. In the remaining semi-final Team France’s Loeb lost his race to Kristoffersson and Martins tied it up with a win against Mostert.
In the decider Martins managed to outpace the more favoured Kristoffersson in the Subaru BRZ and give France a spot in the final, which they went on to win. Team France won its third Race Of Champions ROC Nations Cup in a thrilling final against a “rookie” Team Australia Supercars at Accor Stadium in Sydney tonight.
It was France’s third ROC Nations Cup title, now placing them second on the outright wins list behind Germany, who have had an incredible eight previous victories. The final came down to the wire with a fantastic tie-breaker battle between young French open-wheel ace Victor Martins and reigning Supercars champion Will Brown.
In the first heat of the final Brown defeated nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb in a Polaris RZR to give his team the upper hand. Teammate and reigning Bathurst 1000 champion Brodie Kostecki then had a chance to wrap up a maiden title for Australia with a win against Martins in the FC2 Rallycross car.
Kostecki took an early advantage, but gave it up on a wet track and was edged out by just 1.1 seconds. In the final tie-breaker contested in the Supercar Lite Rallycross car, Brown also had an early advantage, but Martins made up the gap with some “air time” on the bridge which became a “jump” with the removal of a temporary chicane for the final. In the end Martins clinched France’s third title by 0.2 of a second to the appreciative, but mainly shattered home crowd.
WHAT THEY SAID – ROC NATIONS CUP WINNERS
What Victor Martins, Team France, said: “It was just so much fun and incredible to win here on debut. To win the ROC Nations Cup is pretty special and provides another chance to show my potential. I was obviously asking Seb (Loeb) for lots of tips and asked if it could be flat over the bridge (without the chicane) and he said the car had the suspension to land it. I checked the draw for the ROC Champion of Champions tomorrow and if I was to come up against Seb (Loeb) it would not be until the final, so let’s hope I have the chance to race him tomorrow night. I just know I will not be with these guys (Brown and Kostecki) tonight.”
What Sebastien Loeb, Team France, said: “I have obviously been speaking with Victor since the start and I think we made a good job together. At the end of the day he (Martins) was competing in his first Race Of Champions and he was not expected to be fighting at the front. I think he impressed everyone. Tomorrow is another day where we push the reset button and it should be great.”
What Will Brown, Team Australia, said: “To be honest, we just wanted to make sure we were not last and eliminated in the first round. Brodie dragged me through one round and I dragged him through another and somehow we ended up in the final, which was just fantastic. The final was such an amazing battle, we just fell a fraction short which was not a bad result for our first attempt at the ROC Nations Cup. This whole thing has just been an amazing experience and hopefully we get the chance to do it again. Hopefully we can put some extra vodka in everyone’s drinks tonight and that might give us an edge in the Champion of Champions tomorrow.”
What Brodie Kostecki, Team Australia Supercars, said: “I asked Will’s opinion on how to drive the rally car and he said ‘just don’t crash it’. It has been a surreal couple of days after getting the late call up because of the weather in Queensland – and let me just say, I hope everyone will be safe up there in the next 24 hours. Like Will, and I guess Victor (Martins), I grew up idolising a lot of these drivers and we are out there racing against them. And doing it inside the Australian Olympic stadium. The final was just a great battle, maybe the difference is that they got home a little earlier than us last night. Maybe we might have to change that this evening. It was cool that Will and I could team back up to do this together, but I guess it is every driver for themselves tomorrow night. I have already “unfriended” him (Brown).”
Co-founder and President of Race Of Champions, Fredrik Johnsson, said: “It was an absolutely amazing competition tonight and one certainly worthy of our first ever event in the Southern Hemisphere. Team Australia Supercars were certainly the big surprise packet on the night and almost got the job done in front of the home crowd. (Will) Brown and (Brodie) Kostecki were both very fast and will certainly be big contenders tomorrow night in the ROC Champion of Champions. Congratulations must go to (Victor) Martins who did an incredible job on debut and teamed perfectly with the legend that is Sebastien Loeb. Now we regroup and get ready to put on a big head-to-head individual battle tomorrow night at Accor Stadium.”
