Super2 rookie’s race for Bathurst 1000 drive

McLeod won the Mike Kable Young Gun Award thanks to his exploits in the Super3 class in 2023, when twin misfortune at Sandown cruelled his title hopes but he did prevail in eight races out of a possible 12.

The third-generation driver stepped up to Super2 this year in a ZB Commodore owned and prepared by PremiAir Racing, and backed by Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, which he tested again last week at Queensland Raceway.

The #23 PremiAir Nulon Camaro of Tim Slade is but one of a handful of seats still with a question mark over a co-driver for this year’s enduros, and McLeod could be the answer.

Speedcafe understands that he will be handed the gig by team owner Peter Xiberras if he is in the top three in the Super2 Series by the time the Sandown 500 rolls around on September 13-15.

The 19-year-old is currently 10th in the standings having finished 14th and eighth in the two races which made up Round 1 of the season at Mount Panorama, making his way up from 15th on the starting grid in the latter.

That makes the next two rounds of the season, later this month at Wanneroo Raceway and then in July at the NTI Townsville 500, crucial.

There are 600 points up for grabs before Round 4 takes place on the undercard of the Sandown 500 itself, with McLeod 75 points behind third place in the standings, held by Tickford Racing’s Brad Vaughan.

PremiAir Racing has already finalised one driver pairing for the 2024 Supercars enduros, scoring a coup with the signing of David Russell to partner James Golding in the #31 Camaro.

Russell spent the past three years as Brodie Kostecki’s co-driver at Erebus Motorsport, a combination which produced two Bathurst 1000 podiums and one in the Sandown 500, and had originally been set to reprise that role this year.

If not McLeod in Car #23, then a logical option would be Jonathon Webb, who made his Supercars comeback as Slade’s co-driver in last year’s enduros, when they finished ninth at Sandown and 13th at Mount Panorama.

That entry will be engineered by Ludo Lacroix going forward, following the recent departure of Mirko De Rosa from PremiAir.

Russell and Webb, along with the Koundouris brothers James and Theo, finished third in the Silver class of February’s Bathurst 12 Hour (15th outright) in a Mercedes-AMG GT3.