Le Brocq eyes end of podium drought

Backing up speed round on round has Jack Le Brocq eyeing an end to his and Matt Stone Racing’s podium droughts.

Le Brocq was fifth for the round at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, only behind Will Brown, Cam Waters, Broc Feeney and Brodie Kostecki.

The MSR veteran was one of three drivers, with Brown and Waters, to finish in the top 10 in all three races at Symmons Plains.

The Gen3 era has renewed Le Brocq, who now has eight top 10 finishes in 12 starts this season.

Only Kostecki (11 top 10s), Brown, Waters, Feeney, Shane van Gisbergen and Chaz Mostert (nine) have more top 10s.

Prior to 2022, Le Brocq had 22 top 10s in 170 starts (13 per cent). This year, his top 10 percentage is 67 per cent (eight in 12).

Such form has Le Brocq hoping to end an 82-race wait for silverware, dating back to Tailem Bend 2020 when he was with Tickford Racing.

After four rounds, Le Brocq is 10th overall, just 164 points from fifth overall. After four rounds in 2022, he was languishing down in 23rd.

MSR is also chasing its first ever Supercars podium, with the team without a trophy in 169 races.

Given Le Brocq qualified on the front row for the Tasmania opener on merit, the driver is excited for what’s to come.

"I think the biggest thing for us is being able to back up these great results with both cars," Le Brocq said.

"The team has been working so hard in the background over the off season and the MSR crew have done a great job building these cars.

"It’s impressive and we’re building on it, and I think to back this up week-in, week-out is good.

"We’ll go to Darwin and Townsville now and hopefully get on that podium soon, it’s not far away."

MSR also turned a corner with rookie Cameron Hill, who scored his first top 10 qualifying and race results.

Hill finished eighth in Race 10, before ending the weekend with dual finishes of 11th.

The Canberran also supplemented his weekend with his Formula Ford program, CHE Racing, with Zak Lobko, Daniel Frougas and Imogen Radburn fourth, 12th and 13th for the round.

"It’s been an awesome weekend. We rolled out of the truck really strong and we just executed every time in qualifying," Hill said.

"It’s just been a massive learning curve for me — learning the soft and the super soft tyre, learning the new formats, learning to look after tyres.

"There’s been a lot to soak in and every round there’s been lots of positives to take away.

"The results probably didn’t reflect where we were at and this is the first weekend where we’ve pulled it all together.

"I think we’re going to be hopefully more consistent towards that top 10."

The 2023 Supercars season will resume at the betr Darwin Triple Crown on June 16-18.