Matt Stone Racing has confirmed the departure of Jack Le Brocq at the end of the 2023 Supercars season, ahead of his expected move to Erebus Motorsport.
Le Brocq has spent the past year-and-half at MSR, revitalising his career with performances which have included delivering the team’s first ever Supercars Championship race win and pole position, in the #34 Truck Assist Camaro.
Those results have been no flash in the pan, with the 31-year-old scoring a total of 11 top 10 finishes so far in 2023 to sit eighth in the drivers’ standings with less than half the season to go.
It is that form which would seem to have proven attractive to Erebus, as first reported by Speedcafe, with a vacancy opening at the Betty Klimenko-owned squad thanks to Will Brown’s deal to move to Triple Eight Race Engineering as the replacement for Shane van Gisbergen.
UPDATE: Erebus confirms Le Brocq as Brown replacement
A statement from MSR reads: “Matt Stone Racing and Jack Le Brocq will part ways at the end of the 2023 Supercars Championship season.
“It has been agreed by both parties that Jack will not continue with the team into 2024, seeing out the end of his current contract.
“We would like to thank Jack for his professionalism and family spirit whilst at MSR and wish him all the best for the future.
“MSR is very pleased to have helped Jack get his best-ever results in Supercars so far in 2023, including the team’s first-ever Supercars race win in Darwin and Jack and the team’s maiden pole position.
“Both Jack and the team remain a hundred percent focused on the rest of the 2023 season and ramping up for the enduro campaign to finish off the year on a high.
“An announcement on MSR’s exciting plans for 2024 will be made in due course.”
Le Brocq himself said, “I’d like to start this update by thanking Matt Stone and the MSR team for their support and faith in me since we started our journey together.
“It was a tough decision for both parties, but the 2023 season will be my last at MSR.
“It’s been a big 18 months for the team, including MSR’s maiden Supercars win in Darwin. We’ve all grown a lot over that time, and I will forever be grateful to have played a part in it.
“There’s five rounds to go this season, so my focus will remain on getting the best results we can right through until the chequered flag flies in Adelaide.
“We won’t stop pushing towards our goal of securing a top 10 in the Drivers’ and Teams’ Championship.”
The upshot for MSR is that it now has at least one seat to fill, and a race-winning one at that, at a time when others are rapidly filling up.
As previously reported, the genuine vacancies now appear to be at MSR and potentially the Blanchard Racing Team.
With Richie Stanaway apparently coming into the frame at Grove Racing, where Matt Payne is on a long-term deal, a David Reynolds move to Team 18 and the seat currently held by Scott Pye is more likely than before, although nothing has been confirmed on that front.
BRT is set to promote Aaron Love from Super2 to Championship next year, but is also working on standing up a second entry, to which Tickford Racing incumbent James Courtney has been linked.
Meanwhile, the OTR SuperSprint is underway with support category action, before the Repco Supercars Championship field rolls out tomorrow morning at The Bend for opening practice from 09:45 local time/10:15 AEST.
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