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The category makes its return to the ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’ this weekend with the inaugural ITM Taupo Super400, which replaces the popular stop at the now-closed Pukekohe.
Speaking at Taupo, Stone expressed his support for the idea of staying on in New Zealand for another weekend of racing.
“I probably come back to New Zealand at least once a year and having a race over here makes that more convenient,” said the owner of the eponymous Matt Stone Racing.
“So, I absolutely love coming back here and I think most of the teams and the category and the sport in general all want more racing – I think we all agree on that – and a double-header in New Zealand just makes perfect sense.
“New Zealand’s got a huge amount of race tracks for what is a relatively small country compared to Australia so to be able to utilise more than one of them on a trip over here makes perfect sense.
“I think the logistics involved in bringing the category over here, it’d be great to do two rounds, back-to-back.
“I think there is a huge support for supercars in New Zealand so finding the right track, like Hampton Downs, to complement it, I’m sure that the fans would come out in droves and really appreciate it.
“So, I think it’s a great concept for the future and I’d love to see it happen.”
Matt Stone is the son and nephew of the famous New Zealand motorsport exports known as the Stone Brothers, Jim and Ross.
Grove Racing’s Kiwi connection is through both of its drivers, namely Matt Payne and Richie Stanaway, with the squad adopting a special livery for its Mustangs this weekend.
CEO Brenton Grove supports the call for two events on that side of the Tasman.
“All of our partners love the round; obviously, Penrite were pretty keen to change the livery,” he noted.
“We agree with Matt. At the end of the day, it’s a big expense for the category to come over here.
“There’s so many good tracks and there’s a lot of Supercar fans, and the country is still relatively quite spread out.
“So, we’re not getting to the South Island, we’re not showing the full capability of Supercars around New Zealand, so we would completely support going back-to-back because it just makes sense.
“The more people we can get through the gate and the more people we can have the follow Supercars – get to touch it and feel it – then that’s a win for everyone.
“I think especially at the moment with all the other sports being so competitive, anything we can do to promote Supercars to a broader audience is something that we’d jump onboard with.”
Practice at Taupo starts today at 12:55 local time/10:55 AEST.
