Mixed feelings for Matt Stone
By Andrew Clarke
Date posted: 16 October 2025
Matt Stone Racing left Mount Panorama with mixed emotions after a bruising Bathurst 1000 that still yielded a top five for the Gold Coast squad.
Team owner Matt Stone opened the ledger first, praising a resilient day that kept one car in the hunt while an early engine failure sidelined the other.
“Absolutely,” Stone said when asked if it felt like a phenomenal race.
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“It was a phenomenal race with a lot of opportunities for outliers to come through. It’s disappointing that we only had one horse in the race so early on with an engine failure. But it was a great recovery from a few bits of bad luck and a penalty early on the car #4 side to get back to fifth.”
The new finals format added sting to the tale. MSR missed the top 10 by three points with Cam Hill, and Percat by more after a DNF took him out of the Finals. “The first time the finals have come and the top 10 has been decided by three points between three drivers, and unfortunately, we are on the wrong side of it,” Stone said. “It was nail-biting and exciting and, yeah, cool.”
Stone noted a live points race was unfolding behind the leaders. “When we got to the top five and when #88 overtook Heimgartner, I think we thought it put us in, and then Kai Allen got past Aaron Cameron, and that gave him a couple of points and just jumped us. It was right down to the wire.”
Image: Peter Norton Epic Sports Photography
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