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Well as Battery World Aussie Racing Cars kicks off its 26th year of competition in 2026, the category also sees the addition of the brand new Yamaha MTO9 engine, as a affordable & reliable engine choice for competitors and teams in the 2026 season.

On Thursday, 15 guest drivers were invited out to Sydney Motorsport Park to test the parity between the old ‘XJR 1300cc’ against the new 'Yamaha MTO9’, including drivers such as 2025 Champion – Kody Garland, two-time Champion – Joel Heinrich, multiple-time Legend Car Champion – Lachy Ward, and TFH Racing prospect – Josh Thomas, who himself has been extremely involved in the production and implementation of the new MTO9 engine, and has tested this engine on track just once before, at the 2025 BP Adelaide Grand Final as a test car last year.

There were four cars being tested on Thursday, including two ‘Corish Motorsport’ Mustangs running the XJR, and two TFH Racing machines running the MTO9, as the category’s intention is to start experimenting with both engines on track, with a variety of drivers in cars, before the MTO9 makes its official debut in Round 1 of the 2026 season, at the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour. Keep in mind that the new MTO9 engine is roughly 30kg lighter, and has a 6-speedrather than a 5-speed gearbox, so it’s safe to say that drivers will defintely feel the difference out on track, especially around Sydney Motorsport Park.

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2025 Champion Kody Garland said pre-testing – “I think it’s going to be good to get some good close data, and some parity testing… yeah, interesting to see what’s between the two, but hopefully we can come out of the day with two equal motors.”

Two-time Aussie Car Champion Joel Heinrich said – “Yeah, the XJR is getting old, and you’ve got to look at the future. I think it’s going to be a good day to do a lot of learning, see where both engines are at, in sort of a comparability stage, but yeah, keen to see what it’s all about!”

Porsche Careera Cup driver, Anthony Di Mauro explains - "I think the big thing with the MTO9 that they're trying to roll out is to work on reliability side of things, but yeah just going into today with an open mind, I think what the Thomas's are doing and TFH Hire, and the owners of the category is super cool."

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After the first single session of the day had been completed, drivers and engineers looked through various sets of data between the XJR and MTO9, and found that the XJR was consistently ‘three tenths faster’ almost every lap, with a 1.41.30 set by Kody Garland in the XJR, and a 1.41.60 set also by Kody Garland, but in the MTO9.

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Kody said – “Polar opposites to drive, definitely a different technique for the MTO9, but it’s good to see that straight off the bat we’re pretty close.”

Joel said – “Just a lot different to the XJR, the braking phase is a lot different, the way the engine retards itself just took me a couple of laps to get used to. There’s a couple of unique things you’re going to have to do to get the speed out of it… but it’s gonna be a driver’s engine to extract the most out of it.”

Aussie Racing Cars Presenter, Jai Eccles asked Reece Chapman – “Weight-wise, 31kg lighter is this new MTO9 engine. Do you feel that on-track?”

Reece – “Yeah, definitely you feel it in the balance, especially under brakes. So yeah, it’s something to get used to, but the cars are designed to be loose and fast.”

Multiple-time Legend Cars Australia Champion – Lachy Ward made his appearance back into the paddock on Thursday, and post his first session explained – “Both cars went good, but man that MTO9 out there in that Aussie car was second to none, and I think that’s the way to go… and just having that extra gear is really good. And I think eventually, once people see what the MTO9 can do, once they sort out what you need to do with the setup, and maybe weight and restrictors and stuff, it’ll take off… by the end of the year, I can guarantee three-quarters of the field will be on it!”

And lastly, founder of Chicane Motorsports – Cody Mackay, had a real in-depth debrief on what he found after testing the new MTO9 for the first time, as he explained – “It’s a different car to drive, there’s a lot to process from it, there’s a lot more gears, is it the right choice… we don’t know yet, we’d have to see it out in practice and really see what’s going on... a fair few competitors have been screaming about this for a fair while, that they wanted to get a different engine that was more serviceable… this offers a bit of a cleaner solution, where there’s plentiful parts around… so that means we’ve got plenty of parts to keep the series going, because I know this category has been going for 25 years, and it wants to go for another 25 years.”

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But that's all from our MTO9 test day at Sydney Motorsport Park - Round 1 of the 2026 Battery World Aussie Racing Car Super Series kicks off at Mount Panorama, Bathurst, for the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour, Easter long weekend, April 3–5, live from the screens of Fox Sports, Kayo, SBS One, & on the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series YouTube page.

And to stay updated with all the latest news from Battery World Aussie Racing Cars, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & TikTok – @aussieracingcars – and for full event details, schedule, and breaking news, visit www.aussieracingcars.com.au

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Jai Eccles