Cameron Hill and his new team-mate, Nick Percat, will share a MARC GT with John Holinger in the Invitational class at Mount Panorama, one week before they race their Chevrolet Camaros for Supercars championship points in the Thrifty Bathurst 500.
“When Round 1 of the Supercars season was announced to be at Bathurst the week after the 12 Hour, we knew it was going to be important to have a presence,” said Team Owner Matt Stone.
“We pushed hard to secure a drive for Nick and Cam at the 12 Hour, and were able to lock in an MSR entry with John Holinger.
“Given there are only two, one-hour practice sessions for the Supercars event, that seat time for the drivers at the 12 Hour will make a big difference.
“Hopefully it means we can hit the ground running the following week.”
This year’s ‘Bathurst SuperFest’ was created as a response to the demise of the Newcastle 500 and represents an unprecedented fusion of the 12 Hour and the Supercars season-opener.
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While Triple Eight Race Engineering has continued with its usual 12 Hour practice of entering its Supercars drivers in one of its Mercedes-AMG GT3s, giving Will Brown an early opportunity to work with his new team in a competitive environment, MSR’s move takes matters a step further.
Not only is it a chance for Percat and Hill to enjoy seat time in a quite similar vehicle to a Supercar – albeit one which resembles a Mercedes-AMG GT3 in appearance – the former will also be able to acquaint himself with his new race engineer.
While Jack Le Brocq has departed MSR for Erebus Motorsport, Jack Bellotti remains at the Yatala-based squad and will engineer the MARC Car at Mount Panorama, then Percat’s Camaro in the 2024 Supercars Championship.
MSR will test the MARC Car at Queensland Raceway next Thursday, January 25, with the livery to be revealed in the lead-up to the event.
The 2024 Bathurst 12 Hour takes place on February 16-18 and the Bathurst 500 on February 23-25.
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