Volkswagen Golf TCR driver Lachlan Mineeff is an unexpected guest of Matt Stone Racing at Winton Motor Raceway this weekend.

Mineeff, 19, runs his own TCR team Purple Sector and says that his role with MSR is purely as a “helper,” but is keen to learn as much as he can from the Supercars outfit.

“It’s great to be here with Matt Stone Racing. Obviously, it’s my first time working being involved with a Supercars team. It’s great to see how the operation runs at the top level of Australian motorsport and anytime you can be at a race track is great,” he said.

“Matt Stone Racing is a very professional team with some good cars and it’s a good outfit, so I’m just soaking in as much as I can.

“From what I have seen so far, there’s nothing that is a huge surprise or significantly different, but everything is just smooth, refined and perfect.

“When the cars hit the track, I will get a really good idea of how their operation runs, but the scale of the operation is quite impressive. There are quite a few things we can pick up for my own TCR campaign with Purple Sector. There are definitely a lot of little things we can pick up for sure.

“Anytime in motorsport, especially in Australia the situation is always changing so you need to keep yourself open and connected in as many circles as you can.

“Obviously with Supercars being the pinnacle of Australian motorsport, any time you can spend here is very cool.”

Mineeff currently sits 17th in the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series points, driving the Golf GTi that was raced by Jason Bright in the inaugural 2019 season. Coincidentally, that Bright/Golf entry was run by MSR in TCR.

Opening Supercars practice at Winton kicks off at 08:50 local time/AEST this morning.