MSR stung by nightmare Sunday
Sandown proved a nightmare for Matt Stone Racing despite a strong start to the weekend.
Jack Le Brocq qualified a standout eighth for Race 24, but plummeted to 19th.
Sunday was a cruel day for the team, with both cars picking up lap 1 damage in Race 25.
Contact saw Le Brocq limp back to the pits with a broken left-front.
MSR mechanics were left in shock when Todd Hazelwood, who also picked up damage, followed Le Brocq into the garage.
The team managed to get the cars back out, but Hazelwood was classified 24th, and Le Brocq 25th.
Race 26 began in high drama, again at Turn 3, with Jake Kostecki spinning in front of the field.
The incident drew in Hazelwood, Chris Pither, and Macauley Jones.
Hazelwood was the biggest loser, and was forced into the lane where he dropped seven laps.
Later, Le Brocq was 20th before he was forced in with an issue in the closing laps.
Le Brocq’s engineer Jack Bellotti was at a loss over the shocking luck.
“It started off positive, eighth on Saturday, we thought we were on,” Bellotti told Supercars’ Cool Down Lap podcast.
“Just didn’t maximise qualifying on Sunday, and got involved in a Turn 1 shunt.
“Jack broke a left-front tie rod, Todd got tangled in a separate incident, left-front tie rod, both cars in the garage.
“It was the worst race I’ve ever seen. Race 3 was carryover damage, something else broke in the left front corner.”
Mark Skaife said in commentary he had never seen two cars from the same team forced in with identical damage.
When posed with Skaife’s comments, Bellotti replied: “I hope I never see it again.
“It’s not fun when the crew’s trying to fix two cars at once.
“Kudos to the boys, they did a great job.”
Hazelwood and Le Brocq are 16th and 20th heading to Pukekohe.
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