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The Super2 squad remains without a naming rights deal for the Sandown and Bathurst races, in which it has committed to fielding an ex-Triple Eight Chevrolet Camaro for Chahda and rookie co-driver Brad Vaughan.
“The economy is not good at the moment,” team boss Amin Chahda told Speedcafe.
“We had a sponsor lined up but they rang up a couple of weeks ago and said they just can’t do it. I feel for them too, but at the end of the day it doesn’t help us.
“Not having a sponsor makes it really tough. It’s put us under immense financial pressure and it’s taking a lot of soul searching to get the car on the grid.
“It’s tough for the main game teams to find sponsorship, let alone a privateer like us, and motor racing is an expensive sport.”
Chahda says the team will race regardless of the outcome of its sponsor hunt, but it won’t be easy.
The Camaro is currently undergoing last-minute preparation alongside the team’s Super2 car at Chahda’s Albury workshop, from which his road car servicing and spare parts business also operates.
“I’ve done three services (this morning), because that’s what we do, we’re mechanics, just trying to get some money in to make it work,” he added.
“I got here at 4:30 this morning because the Super2 engine turned up yesterday, so I’ve fitted that engine myself because there’s so much work to do on the main game car and there’s work in the workshop.
“We’re all working our arses off to make this happen.”
It’s the second time in three years that the Chahdas have opted to field a main game wildcard following their debut in the Bathurst 1000 in 2022.
Having leased a Commodore from Walkinshaw Andretti United on that occasion, this time they’ve purchased the Camaro that Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup won the Sandown race with last year.
While that required major investment, the team is very much a privateer outfit in the mould of Sandown and Bathurst entries from a bygone era.
“It’s a full family operation,” explained Chahda, whose team will swell from its regular eight to 22 people in order to run both the main game and Super2 entries across the two meetings.
“Matt’s brother is #1 mechanic on the Super2 car. Matt’s mother and sister do the catering and I run the whole operation.
“We’re taking a couple of TAFE kids from the motorsport TAFE as well, to give them some experience.
“It’s tough but it makes it a little bit easier doing it the way we do.
“We don’t do it as a business, we do it because we love it. I’m not going to sit at home wondering.”
Chahda has stretched his already thin resources by committing to Sandown as well as Bathurst this year, but says it’s vital to do both in order to be properly prepared for the Great Race.
“You can go and do two or three test days and learn a bit, but to do Sandown, if we can finish that race in a decent position and have done 500 kays, you can’t buy that experience,” he said.
“To me it’s worth it to go and do it.”
It’s an ambitious program with lofty goals.
“Are we going there just to run around? No, we’re not,” Chahda concluded.
“We’ve got a bloody good car, two competent drivers and Triple Eight doing our pitstops (sharing a boom with Triple Eight’s Supercheap Auto wildcard). We’ll be going to have a crack.”
Chahda’s Super2 Commodore will be driven by former Porsche punter Aaron Shields in the Sandown and Bathurst rounds ahead of a likely full-time effort for the driver next year.
Matt Chahda, 30, is unlikely to drive in Super2 next season, instead basing his 2025 program around main game wildcards with the Camaro.
