Stone: Slade gives MSR best chance to win Bathurst

Matt Stone has claimed co-driver recruit Tim Slade offers his eponymous team its best chance yet to win the Great Race.

Announced Friday, Slade will team up with Nick Percat in the #10 Bendix Racing Chevrolet Camaro at The Bend 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000.

Slade, 39, retired at the end of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship. A co-driver for hire, it emerged that Slade was set to land at MSR.

The deal was confirmed on the eve of the 2025 season, with Slade now among the picks of the co-driver field alongside the likes of Mark Winterbottom and Todd Hazelwood.

MSR is still searching for a breakthrough result at the Bathurst 1000, with its best result a ninth in 2023 by Jack Le Brocq/Jayden Ojeda.

MSR finished 20th on debut in 2018, before recording DNFs in three of its next four starts.

Jake Kostecki/Kurt Kostecki’s 13th in 2021 was the best before Le Brocq/Ojeda’s efforts, with Cameron Hill/Cameron Crick 10th last year.

The Percat/Slade pairing is not only MSR’s strongest in its history, but also boasts a former Bathurst winner in Percat. Despite being rivals for over 15 years in Supercars, Percat and Slade have not previously shared a car together. They were, however, teammates at Brad Jones Racing between 2017 and 2019.

It's not the first time Slade's services have been snapped up, with DJR Team Penske jumping at the chance to put Slade next to Scott McLaughlin in 2020 after he left BJR.

Slade also reunites with the Stone family, having raced for Stone Brothers Racing between 2010 and 2012. The South Australian-born driver raced a James Rosernberg-owned, SBR-prepared Ford Falcon between 2010 and 2012, before the team became Erebus Motorsport in 2013.

For Stone, the Slade signing could be the shot in the arm the team needs for the year's longest races.

“Signing Tim as a co-driver alongside Nick puts MSR in the best position we have ever been as a team to win the Bathurst 1000,” Stone said.

"It’s great to be reunited with him for the first time since the Stone Brothers Racing days. Tim has been one of the most consistent and respected drivers in the Supercars paddock for almost two decades and we are thrilled to have him onboard.

"We’re looking forward to working with him across all of our testing and race programs and getting him settled into our outfit.”

Percat will commence his Repco Supercars Championship campaign at Sydney Motorsport Park on February 21-23.

The Percat/Slade combination will tackle The Bend on September 12-14, before the Great Race in Bathurst on October 9-12.