MATT Chahda Motorsport will return to the Repco Supercars Championship later this year for its second wildcard campaign.
The Albury-based privateer squad has officially been given the green light to contest the 2024 Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000, with Super2 stalwart Matt Chahda to partner a to-be-named young gun.
MCM performed commendably on main game debut at the 2022 Great Race, where Chahda and Jaylyn Robotham combined to finish on the lead lap for a solid result of 18th.
That came in a Walkinshaw Andretti United ZB Commodore; this time around, MCM will field a Gen3 Camaro leased from either Triple Eight Race Engineering or Brad Jones Racing, according to team owner Amin Chahda.
“To be honest with you, I haven’t slept since Thursday when I got told we were approved,” Chahda Sr told V8 Sleuth.
“We don’t want to half-do it, we want it 110 percent like we did in 2022, so just a bit nervous with all of that.
“Once we get the co-driver signed, I’ll be a lot happier too. We’ve got three at the moment we’re looking at.
“It won’t be a name driver as such, because ideally the whole reason I do this is to bring in kids who won’t get an opportunity for a while if ever, to have a run.
“That’s the whole idea because I hate these kids getting overlooked, it really annoys me that the same old guys are still driving. They’re good, but sometimes you need to give kids a go too.”
There’ll be a strong family feel to the program, with Matt’s mother, brother and sister also involved.
“I don’t think you can get a better scenario than to have the whole family there,” said Amin, who confirmed Brian Cottee will act as race engineer.
“A lot of people say to me, ‘why do you still do it?’
“I say, ‘well, how much time do you spend with your kids? We’re away racing together, we’re at the track together, we go home and have dinner together. You can’t buy that time. All my kids are in their 30s now and they still hang out’.”
A decision on whether Chahda will race in Super2 at Sandown and Bathurst will be made after the upcoming rounds at Perth and Townsville, with the alternative being that MCM may run another driver in its BJR-built Commodore.
MCM at this stage is targeting early August for its first Gen3 test.
Chahda Jr’s only prior Gen3 experience came courtesy of some laps with PremiAir Racing at Ipswich.
MCM joins Triple Eight in being confirmed to run wildcards this season. The latter will field Cooper Murray at Darwin, and Murray/Craig Lowndes in the enduros.
