Le Brocq's tribute to absent engineer

Jack Le Brocq wants to get another win on the return of regular engineer Jack Bellotti, who missed his driver’s breakthrough victory in Darwin.

Le Brocq controlled Race 15 from lights to flag to record Matt Stone Racing’s first Supercars victory.

It came without Bellotti by his side, with the race engineer absent due to impending birth of his wife’s second child.

MSR parachuted in Matthew Saunders to work with Le Brocq, with the duo combining for a famous win.

Saunders is no stranger to Supercars, previously working with Team 18 — which also struck gold in Darwin thanks to Mark Winterbottom.

Last year, Saunders skippered Declan Fraser to the Super2 title with Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Saunders is currently engineering Nash Morris’ Super2 efforts, but can now call himself a Supercars race winner.

“Credit to the guys, it’s all down to them, they did a great job,” Le Brocq said on the Schick Cool Down Lap podcast.

“Shame that Bellotti couldn’t be here, we had Matty Saunders helping out this weekend, who did a great job kicking in.

“We’ll have to get another one for Bellotti back home."

Le Brocq is hopeful more is to come for MSR, which has flown out of the blocks in the early stages of the Gen3 era.

The win isn’t a total shock given the form of Le Brocq, who has been a regular of the top 10.

“Gen3’s definitely been awesome for the team at MSR,” he said.

“The team’s had all the ingredients there and Gen3’s been the building block for us.

“When I signed on with Matty [Stone] at the start of last year, it was always building for Gen3 and I think that’s what we’ve been working towards.

“The guys are doing a great job, we’ve got a great bunch of young fellas in there, and everyone’s learning and building.

“Hopefully we can keep improving and moving forward, but I think to be doing what we’re doing now is pretty special for the team.

“We’ll keep working forward and hopefully keep doing it.”

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the NTI Townsville 500 on July 7-9. Tickets are on sale now.