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The bonnet which Jack Le Brocq drove to victory in Darwin has now joined some other historic mementos in the Matt Stone Racing workshop.
Le Brocq’s triumph in Race 15 of the season at Hidden Valley, when he converted from pole position, was the first for MSR in the top flight of Supercars.
At the NTI Townsville 500, the bonnet on the #34 Truck Assist Camaro that weekend in Darwin was signed by all of the crew members, including Matt Saunders, who was filling in as Race Engineer due to Jack Bellotti’s absence from the Top End.
Now, still in its Indigenous livery designed by artist Rhonda Sampson, it has been taken out of the spare parts inventory and erected in MSR’s Yatala facility, alongside a host of other others.
It joins the bonnet from Jason Bright’s 1998 Bathurst 1000 win with Stone Brothers Racing, that from Bright’s return to SBR in 2009, that from Shane van Gisbergen’s final race with SBR in 2012, and Todd Hazelwood’s 2017 Dunlop Super2 Series title-winning Truck Dealers bonnet.
Team owner Matt Stone said, “You only win your first Supercars race once, so we’ve taken a memento from that, being the bonnet, and added it to the collection we’ve got going on the walls of various memorabilia from various milestones along the way.
“It’s up in stone now and there to stay as a nice piece of wall art in the workshop.
“It’s good to recount the experience of that first race win and the thrill of being there in Darwin and everything involved.
“The biggest thing that comes out of it is it makes us hungry for more and drives us to do it again.
“We want to keep the collection growing with a couple of spots reserved for the Bathurst win and and first Supercars Championship that, hopefully, aren’t too far away.”
Le Brocq, who this weekend returns to the scene of his very first race win in the Repco Supercars Championship, in Sydney, is hungry for more.
“It’s pretty special to have the first win for MSR in the Supercars Championship and then have all the boys sign the bonnet that actually won the race in Darwin,” he remarked.
“To get it up on the wall there with all these other bonnets full of history from the SBR days, it’s pretty cool.
“That day in Darwin was awesome, definitely unreal; I’m still pinching myself even now. It happened five or six weeks ago now and it still feels like it’s still in the present time.
“Heading into Sydney this weekend it would be awesome to be able to get another one and keep adding to the list.
“It’s only the start, and I think we’ve got a lot install for the future.”
Matt Stone is the son of Jim and the nephew of Ross, the Stone Brothers who won three straight V8 Supercars championship titles (2003 to 2005) as well as the 1998 Bathurst 1000.
Two of those championships were clinched at what was known then as Eastern Creek, where track activity starts on Friday before the Supercars roll out for practice on Saturday.
GALLERY: Matt Stone Racing bonnet collection
