MATT Stone Racing’s best Bathurst 1000 points haul came despite a nightmare start to the 2023 Great Race.
The team’s #35 Camaro of Cameron Hill/Jaylyn Robotham was plagued by persistent clutch issues at the Mountain, and the matter again reared its head at the start of the formation lap.
That forced Hill to miss the start of the race and instead pit for a clutch bleed, instantly dropping him to last by more than half a minute.
While #34 combination Jack Le Brocq/Jayden Ojeda recorded MSR’s highest ever Mount Panorama finish in ninth, Hill and Robotham’s recovery to 15th – not helped by a double stack along the way – was arguably even more impressive.
Team owner Matt Stone in fact labelled it “bloody brilliant” and a superb show of resilience.
“After weeks of prep and this whole big week and everything that goes into it, for something to happen before it even starts is your worst nightmare,” he told V8 Sleuth.
“Obviously the team handled it well and we got out to start the race and were able to fight our way back. It’s certainly not what we wanted… but I’d rather have an issue at the start than an issue at the end.
“We made it to the end in a respectable finishing position, so a great effort by everyone.”
Hill later revealed the clutch bleed had helped but not fixed the problem.
“We pushed through the whole day with about 30 percent of a clutch pedal,” said the Canberran.
Stone conceded it had been a tough slog to get on top of the drama.
“We had clutch issues at the start of the year that we fixed pretty easily, similar to DJR. We hadn’t had that since,” he said.
MSR remains 10th in the teams’ championship but is just 149 points behind seventh-placed PremiAir Racing.
