The Queenslander says his eponymous team plans to stick loyal to General Motors despite Triple Eight’s shock defection to Ford and uncertainty around Chevrolet’s future in the category.
Stone made the declaration during the three-car launch of MSR’s 2025 Supercars campaign at its Yatala, Gold Coast, workshop on Tuesday.
While MSR is one of several GM teams that has a technical support deal with Triple Eight, Stone’s focus is firmly on beating the powerhouse squad this season.
“For us, we just focus on the art of going racing,” said Stone, the son of Supercars Hall of Famer and former Stone Brothers Racing co-owner Jimmy.
“The GM thing, or the Triple Eight thing, was obviously a big story for everyone, but we’re very committed to GM.
“We’ve loved the partnership with them over the last ‘X’ amount of years, I love driving a Silverado every day, so we’re definitely committed to GM in the future.
“They will undoubtedly fill us all in [on their plans] when it’s available, but we don’t get too caught up in that.
“We’ll focus on what we’re doing, going racing, let them get distracted by their manufacturer shift and let us just do what we do and go out there and try and beat them.”
Ford has already declared its focus is on retaining a five team line-up for 2026, gaining Triple Eight while losing Walkinshaw Andretti United to Toyota.
Toyota is set to pick up at least one more squad but is yet to reveal its hand.
MSR knows too well the Supercars manufacturer merry-go-round.
It made a bold move from customer Triple Eight equipment to ex-DJR Team Penske Falcons when it stepped up from Super2 to the Supercars Championship in 2018.
A disastrous start to the year resulted in a mid-season return to Triple Eight Commodores.
Stone eyed a switch back to Ford for the start of Gen3 era, citing the Stone family’s historical connections, but was snubbed by the Blue Oval as it snapped up WAU instead.
MSR subsequently struck a deal with GM to run Camaros and has emerged as a rising force in the Gen3 era, taking three race victories across the last two years.
The team has added more firepower to its crew over the off-season after a breakout 2024 that included a pair of wins for recruit Nick Percat.
Percat is again joined by teammate Cam Hill while Cameron Crick races in a wildcard entry for the Sydney opener and Endurance Cup.
Changes at MSR have included elevating veteran Paul Forgie to a new technical co-ordinator position and recruiting rising talent Caleb Mutsaerts from DJR to fill the race engineer role for Hill.
“The last few years post the pandemic we’ve built a fantastic crew of both team and supporters,” said Stone of his emerging outfit.
“This year we almost had zero turnover but one of our guys unfortunately decided to go back to surfboards instead of race cars.
“But we’ve got four new additions to the team on top of that, so we are growing the team and our commitment to growing the performance.
“A few of the new guys and new roles we’ve got within the team, I’m really excited for what we can deliver on track with that added resource.”
MSR will take to Queensland Raceway on Thursday to shake down a new Camaro for Hill.
Discussion about this post