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Erebus has confirmed that Todd Hazelwood will be replacing him for round 1. They claim that he is still on the team though, presumably they haven't formalised his exit with the lawyers.

Turnover in that team is ridiculous

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Article says they might be losing Coca Cola too

What the fuck is going on

What an utter mess. Trying to devalue the team and take over entirely?

Surely it can't be all Barry?

Perhaps someone found something from the past, I dunno

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Geezez, what a self implosion

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3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

Coco-cola confirms exit from Erebus

https://speedcafe.com/coca-cola-confirms-erebus-split/

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3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

They've lost Coca-Cola (who've said they'll stay in the sport but not with Erebus) and another major sponsor, who said the following in a statement



Scott McLaughlin said this on Twitter



Boost has also withdrawn it's naming right sponsorship on the Gold Coast 500 over this issue (Adderton was a big supporter of Brodie's and is financing some of his NASCAR stuff later this year).

There's something seriously afoot, not only at Erebus but the sport in general.

Poo has hit the fan and I have a feeling some heads will actually roll over this mess if Boost Mobile also seems upset. It's no longer an internal Erebus matter

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So after some digging, asking a few people in the sport, here's what I believe has happened (all unfounded, word of mouth, but better rumour mongering than a facebook comment section).

Betty Klimenko fired Kostecki during the off season (I was told it wasn't Barry Ryan, but he still could have been involved in some way). The wording I was given was "biblical falling out".
They've tried to make up with him and re-hired him or reneged on sacking him.
He's realised that he doesn't want to be part of the toxic environment, having been stepped all over, so he's trying to walk. Erebus are trying to hold him to a contract he was essentially fired from.
Erebus have treated him like garbage, but Supercars have not shown any real support to Kostecki, hence a lot of people outside the sport (McLaughlin, SVG et al) have commented about his treatment.

This apparently also happened to SVG when Stone Brothers turned into Erebus.

as I've said in other places, you know damn well Supercars is looking at this with joy knowing damn well they want another 2 cars off the grid so they can ruin their international marketing campaigns with another non-broadcast overseas race alongside Formula 1 in fucking Qatar

I hope Brodie can get a ride where he's properly respected, where ever that may be.

hopefully Perth Motorplex & 7 can continue this trek on trying to increase the spotlight of Sprint Car racing over there as well, because it's 100% clear that CAMS & RACE/Supercars continues to want to riddle away at what they have. Like come on bro, ARG or SRO Australia ain't gonna be competing with y'all for shit. You have the greatest circuit race in the region & frankly one of the greatest in the world. GT3, TCR or TA2 ain't ever gonna dethrone that (nor does it want to).

That feels both surprisingly underwhelming and also realistic. But I don't get why both their major sponsors would jump ship over this, unless they want to follow Brodie wherever he ends up. Driver contract disputes rarely bleed into sponsorship termination unless the sponsor's relationship is with the driver or there's serious misconduct (like the kind that sponsors wouldn't want to be publicly associated with) involved.

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Yea, it's that last part of your post that makes me think there's more going on here

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"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

There actually is a simple explanation to this one - the commercial manager of Erebus is also, apparently, Brodie's manager. Brodie left, thus his agent left and took all the commercial agreements (sponsors) with him.

Roland Dane, who I've never really resonated with, had this to say



Erebus have chewed up and spat out several high profile, successful drivers, SVG, David Reynolds, Will Davison, Anton De Pasquale, so it's no surprise it's all come to this.

If Betty/Barry fired Brodie with that factor present, that is a whole new level of shooting yourself in the foot. Still seems like either the sponsors were committed for 24 but have pretty solid evidence of contract-breaking behaviour on Erebus's side, or Erebus are terrible at commercial contracts.

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According to BRW, Betty as of last year has a net worth of about $2.7bn (she shares with her half sister), so she obviously can handle a bit of time without financial input from major backers. She's worth more than the sport.

Heading back into the world of rumours, there is word he could get a wildcard seat at Triple 8 at some stage.

They won the championship. They should expect to pay the driver more. Or ask the sponsor for more money. Or whatever it takes to keep the success going.