Engineer change for Truck Assist Racing in Darwin

There has been a change of Race Engineer at Truck Assist Racing for this weekend’s Betr Darwin Triple Crown, with the return of a familiar face.

Matthew Saunders, who was worked with Matt Stone Racing previously, is filling in on Jack Le Brocq’s #34 Chevrolet Camaro at the Hidden Valley Supercars event.

Le Brocq has enjoyed a strong start to the Gen3 era, sitting 10th in the Repco Supercars Championship after four events thus far and enjoying a front row start last time out at Symmons Plains.

However, his usual Race Engineer Jack Bellotti’s wife is expecting a baby, an MSR spokesperson has advised, and hence he is unavailable this weekend.

Saunders is hardly a new face at MSR, having operated as Race Engineer on Car #34 on a number of occasions in 2021.

He previously worked for Team 18 on Mark Winterbottom’s car, before being forced out due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.

The Gold Coast native is still only in his mid-20s yet has experienced the highs and lows of motorsport already, as previously chronicled by Speedcafe.

He was an Australian Endurance Championship with Scott Taylor Motorsport in his early-20s before the move to Team 18, only for COVID-19 to hit.

Saunders had to be let go to protect the business, but was brought back to work for the crew at that year’s Bathurst 1000.

While he is now Operations Manager at Albury-based Malibu Boats Australia, he has also worked also with Triple Eight Race Engineering, as part of its title-winning Super2 effort in 2022.

Practice 1 at Hidden Valley starts this morning at 10:45 local time/11:15 AEST.