Todd Hazelwood is looking to end his Supercars Championship tenure with Matt Stone Racing on a high after a tough season to date.
As first reported by Speedcafe.com, Hazelwood will move to the Blanchard Racing Team in 2023 after his latest stint at MSR.
Hazelwood stepped up to Supercars full-time with MSR in 2018 after winning the Super2 title the previous year and also making his main game debut as a wildcard with the team in 2017.
He then split with MSR to go to Brad Jones Racing ahead of the 2020 season, before rejoining MSR — branded as Truck Assist Racing — this year.
Now, a move to BRT for 2023 is confirmed, taking over the seat of PremiAir Racing-bound Tim Slade.
Just two rounds remain this year, with this weekend’s Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 followed by the season-ending Valo Adelaide 500 from December 1-4.
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Both venues offer the opportunity to jag a result given the unpredictable nature of street circuits.
“I never say never, you’re always giving it your all behind the wheel and aiming for the best result possible,” said Hazelwood when asked of the potential for surprise results.
“So yeah, two rounds left [to] try and finish my stint with MSR on a high.
“Obviously, it’s been a pretty tough back half of the season for me personally, so pretty hungry and motivated to get a good run on the board and at least reward the boys with a good result.
“Hopefully the hard work gets rewarded in this time.”
Hazelwood sits 17th in the drivers’ championship, having struggled for results in recent rounds, partly due to incidents.
The last time Supercars visited the streets of Surfers Paradise in 2019, two cars were severely damaged after heavy crashes, being those of Chaz Mostert and Scott McLaughlin.
Hazelwood is expecting the Gold Coast concrete canyon to bite hard again but is aiming for a lift in results himself.
“Last time we were here, there were two cars [nearly] written off over two days of action,” added Hazelwood.
“You don’t normally see that at too many circuits just from drivers pushing the limits in qualifying particularly.
“Normally you see a car written often in a racing incident these days, but to see cars push to the limits that hard in qualifying, I think that’s a good idea of what’s probably to come this weekend.
“As I mentioned before, being the back-end of the championship, everyone’s pushing super hard at this point of the season to try and either finish the year on a high or salvage a result.
“We’ve had a pretty tough end to this year, so for us, we’re going to be giving everything we’ve got to finish 2022 on a high.”
Practice 1 on the Gold Coast begins on Friday at 12:35 local time/13:35 AEDT.
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