New Zealander Jackson Rooney will make his Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia debut at Phillip Island next weekend with TekworkX Motorsport.

Rooney will join fellow Kiwi William Exton to form a two-car line-up for the opening round of the season at the multiple-race winning squad.

The 21-year-old has an extensive racing background, competing in karting since the age of just seven. After numerous titles throughout New Zealand, Rooney made his car racing debut in the 2024 NZ Toyota 86 Championship.

Rooney immediately excelled in the category, blazing his way to five race wins and eight podiums, netting the rookie fourth in the points standings. 2024 also saw Rooney make his debut in Australian car racing, contesting a round of the Monochrome GT4 Australia Series alongside Tony Quinn at The Bend Motorsport Park.

Phillip Island will mark the first time TekworkX has fielded multiple Pro-Class cars in the category since 2023, when the team clean swept three of the final four rounds.

Round one of the 2025 Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Series takes place from April 4-6 at Phillip Island, as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries.

Quotes:
Jackson Rooney
“I don’t really know what to expect, it’s going to be a big learning curve, but I can’t wait to hit the track with TekworkX.

“I haven’t driven a car like this before, so our goal is just to learn as much as we can at Phillip Island. There are a few drivers in the field who have done a lot of testing, and we’ll be on track on Thursday for the first time. From what I’ve seen it’s definitely a fun track, lots of high-speed corners to test the limits.

“William and I grew up karting together, and we were actually teammates in the Toyota 86 last year so I’m looking forward to teaming up with him again.

Rob Woods
“I had been in discussions with Jackson last year and we met at Hampton Downs earlier this year when we ran Zoe in the GT4. Since then, there have been further discussions and from there, I left Jackson to put together the budget to run with TekworkX in 2025.

“I know it hasn’t been ideal for him to get the budget together and it being so late prior to Round 1, but it was finalised only this Monday while we were testing at Phillip Island, some 10 days prior to round one.

“Jackson comes with obviously a very good karting career and achievements. His season in 2024 in Toyota 86s in NZ and his results as well were very impressive. For us as a team, we really want Jackson to improve session by session over the weekend at Phillip Island and not put any pressure on himself for results as he learns these cars.”