Erebus juniors looking to bounce back from horror Sydney Sunday

Image Racing's trio of drivers are looking to move on quickly from a disastrous opening round of the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series at the Thrifty Sydney 500 - Opening Round.

The Erebus affiliate expanded in the off-season, and features a highly-touted driver line-up of 2023 Super3 champion Jobe Stewart, last year's Super2 Rookie of the Year Jarrod Hughes, and reigning Toyota GR Cup and Scholarship Series champion Max Geoghegan.

In Friday practice Hughes set the third fastest time of the day, whilst Stewart qualified fourth and finished second in the opening race of the season on a day dominated by Kelly Racing's Cameron McLeod.

However, Stewart's podium proved to be the only highlight from an otherwise disappointing weekend, with Sunday a particularly trying day for all three Commodores.

Hughes was the best of the three cars on times in Sunday qualifying, initially qualifying 13th before being excluded for the team not using incompressible jacks whilst working under the car in pit lane.

To make matters worse for the 19-year-old, he was then caught up in an opening lap concertina at Turn 10, which saw the #118 spin with Anderson Motorsport rookie Ryan Tomsett.

Hughes could only salvage 20th from Sunday, and following a quiet run to 13th in Race 1 on Saturday, left Sydney Motorsport Park buried in 17th in the points standings.

Reflecting on Sunday afternoon, the Queenslander was typically light-hearted with his summary of the weekend, but says there will be plenty of work to do before Round 2 in Tasmania.

"It's been a tough weekend for us, but from my side of the fence I don't really know what's going on to be honest," said Hughes.

"On Friday we had really, really good speed, and then yesterday and today just absolutely nothing, that was probably one of the hardest races and probably hardest two days I've had in a very, very long time.

"We'll go back to the drawing board, hopefully see what we did wrong, and then hopefully come back even stronger in Tasmania."

It was also a trying debut for Geoghegan, the grandson of Supercars Hall of Fame inductee Ian "Pete" Geoghegan, who was quick out of the blocks in Practice 1, finishing fourth.

However, the Sydneysider faded as the weekend progressed, with a collision in Race 2 forcing the GR Cup winner to limp home six seconds behind Hughes in 21st.

"Much the same, it was a bit of a struggle," said Geoghegan.

"We were quick on Friday, and started to make some moves, and do some stuff, and then just couldn't really get comfortable in a race pace from there.

"Today was good until I had a bit contact at Turn 1, and then the car fell off from there and I just tried to manage it home.

"It's a good learning weekend, but probably more looking forward to Tassie than I am looking back at this one."

After claiming a podium on Saturday, even Stewart wasn't immune to the struggles the team faced on Sunday, with overnight changes made de-tuning the car so much he could only muster 18th on the grid.

Despite that, Stewart was able to make some ground in the 40-minute race, climbing back up to 14th and salvaging a round result of fifth, which is also where Image Racing are placed in the Super2 Teams Championship.

"Pretty similar, I started 18th which was a pretty terrible qualifying," said Stewart.

"We tried some things from yesterday, which didn't really work out. Moved forward a few spots in the race, but then had nothing, but we had a swing at it and had a crack, so I guess that's all that matters, but we'll regroup before the next round."

Round 2 of the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series will take place at the Tasmania Super 440 from May 9-11, as the development series returns to the Apple Isle for the first time since 2018.