Race of Champions cars and stars locked in, with big names for Sydney

Twenty of the world’s greatest racing drivers will battle in a variety of racing machinery at the 2025 Race of Champions at Olympic Park, Sydney, with the final line-up now locked in for the event on March 7-8, 2025.

The 20-year-old McRae will form part of team Great Britain with fellow Scot, 13-time F1 winner – including two Australian Grands Prix – David Coulthard.

Colin McRae – who was killed in a helicopter crash in 2007 – was the ROC Champion in 1998.

Martins will team up with rallying great Sebastien Loeb – a four-time ROC Champion – driving for Team France.

Race of Champions will pit drivers against each other one-on-one in equal machinery – using six different types of race cars – on a purpose built, one-kilometre layout including a 43-metre crossover bridge inside Accor Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park – with a knockout format raising the stakes.

The meticulously prepared cars include the wild-looking KTM X-Bow Comp R, an open-top, open-wheeled rear-wheel drive sports machine using a carbon-fibre chassis powered by an Audi 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine with a six-speed manual gearbox.

There's also the Polaris RZR Pro R, a 'side-by-side' vehicle at home in the desert, although it will also show its capability away from the rough stuff on the sealed surface at Accor Stadium.

More conventional looking is the FC2 Rallycross car, a Swedish-made hatch-like vehicle packing 410kW and four-wheel drive for a 0-100km/h time of 2.0 seconds, with a second rallycross car – the 261kW Supercar Lite Rallycross – also in the Sydney showdown.

The Toyota GR86 and Subaru BRZ tS sports car twins bring rear-wheel drive back into the mix , with the Toyota GR86 Cup cars from the one-make driver development category seen at V8 Supercars events, with Toyota joining the series from 2026.

ROC will crown the individual winner, but a second shot at glory sees comes with the ROC Nations Cup, pairing up some of the world’s most famous and successful race and rally drivers.

2023 winner Mattias Ekstrom will head to Sydney chasing back-to-back wins, but he’ll face fierce competition from 2022 winner, nine-time World Rally Champion Loeb.

Frenchman Loeb knocked off no-less than four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel, from Germany, in 2022, who returns with countryman Mick Schumacher – former ROC winner, son of Michael and current World Endurance Champion (WEC) driver.

Team Australia will have two bites of the cherry while hosting its first ever ROC, with one team made of current V8 Supercars champion Will Brown and his boss at Red Bull Ampol Racing, Jamie Whincup, a seven-time V8 Supercars champion and the only Bathurst 1000 winner in the 2025 ROC field.

“I grew up watching the Race of Champions and always thought it was such a cool event with so many great stars of the sport,” said Brown.

“Jamie has done a couple of ROC events before, so I will be picking his brain on what to expect and to get a few tips.”

The second – Team Australia Off-road – sees the formidable combo of Dakar and Baja winner Toby Price with former Australian Rally Champion and two-time Extreme E champion, Sydney’s Molly Taylor.

“To be able to compete in the Race of Champions feels surreal and to do it for the first time in front of a home Sydney crowd will be an incredibly special once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Taylor.

“I am excited to be racing against some of the most iconic names in world motorsports, including drivers I’ve looked up to my whole career.

“Sure, ROC is not your traditional style of motorsport, and everyone is having a heap of fun, but, like everyone else out there, I will be racing to win.”

The Aussies will race ‘adopted Australian’ and former Australian Grand Prix winner Valtteri Bottas – representing his birthplace of Finland alongside fellow ex-F1 Finn and former McLaren driver, Heikki Kovalainen, who was ROC Champion in 2004.

Scandinavian countries are also well represented by rallying greats – including Team Norway, which sees 2003 World Rally Champion Petter Solberg paired with his son, Oliver – with Oliver switching to Sweden for his individual entry, his mother a Swedish rally driver.

This leaves four-time and reigning ROC Champion Ekstrom – also a two-time DTM Champion (German Touring Cars) and Rallycross World Champion – to represent Team Sweden with John Kristoffersson, a seven-time Rallycross World Champion and Extreme E winner.

New Zealand’s hopes will rest with 2023 and 2024 European Rally Champion Hayden Paddon and 2024 GB3 Champion and the youngest driver in the field, 17-year-old Louis Sharp.

“It's crazy to think I was born the same year Sebastian Vettel won his first ROC Nations Cup title [2007], and now I get to race against the very icons I grew up admiring,” said Sharp.

Four-time Rally America winner and Eleven-time X-Games gold medallist Travis Pastrana – also of Gymkhana fame with the late Ken Block – will team up with NASCAR champion and Daytona 500 winner Kurt Busch representing Team USA.