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Matt Chahda himself will contest a total of three Supercars Championship events with his family-run team, pending Supercars Board approval, as well as the Dunlop Super2 Series.
The programme is reminiscent of that which the Albury-based outfit undertook in 2022, although then it entered just a single Championship event when it made its debut at the Bathurst 1000.
The announcement comes after SCT Motorsport locked in Jaxon Evans for the 2024 Supercars season, a ride for which Chahda is understood to have been in the frame.
According to MCM, the commitment represents its philosophy that ‘if an opportunity does not present itself, you create one.’
Team owner Amin Chahda remarked, “Basically this season we will be much more prepared than we ever have been, just knowing that we have the same car for the season already.
“In previous years for whatever reason a lot of prep time in the off season was lost due to the uncertainty over which car we would use.
“We have announced these wildcard plans early and although discussions are well down the road with a few teams, we want to take our time and tick every box.
“It’s a sizeable amount of work to be done, getting sponsors to commit, finding a driver the right driver, even down to booking accommodation. Everything goes up a notch when you think about it.”
Matt Chahda finished eighth in this year’s Super2 Series.
He had been sixth, the same position as he finished in 2022, before a tough season finale in Adelaide including an incident which consigned him to a first DNF in over three years.
“We weren’t able to do everything we wanted to do car-wise this year for one reason or another, and struggled with consistent pace although at times we were very fast, like in Townsville,” he said.
“But, over the off-season, we are going through it all to give ourselves the best chance.
“I sat back and thought the other day, this year was the first time in a while we haven’t brought home any silverware and that pissed me off after the trajectory we had been on.
“For sure, I’m really looking forward to our wildcard programme next year.
“We proved that we can run well presented team at Bathurst last year and we are keen to have another chance with the big boys.
“This time we feel we can push harder rather than have the goal of just finishing.”
MCM’s previous wildcard effort saw it lease a car from Walkinshaw Andretti United to race in the Bathurst 1000.
Next year, MCM will continue to count on Brian Cottee as its engineer and field a ZB Commodore built by fellow Albury operation Brad Jones Racing in Super2, with that car currently undergoing an off-season freshen-up.
“It’s mainly all the extra time you have up your sleeve to crack-test everything, check for worn out parts that may get missed during a race meet – and then not having something pop up at Practice 1 at the first round – and it gives ‘Brains’ [Cottee] more time to tinker and upset the mechanics,” quipped Amin Chahda.
The 2024 Super2 Series starts at Bathurst on February 23-25.
