Motorcraft Mustang Cup Australia heads up north to Hidden Valley Raceway, Darwin for Round 4 of the championship, once again as part of the Shannons Speedseries. Round 4 will see 13 Ford Mustang Dark Horse R’s on the grid, with two additional entries over the last round of the series, and some great additions to the field both on the track and in the garage!
Championship leader Josh Anderson returns in the #94 Clean Vibes Multispares Racing Mustang, hoping to continue his strong run at the head of the field. Anderson’s lead in the championship was cut after a difficult race 2 at Queensland Raceway which saw the #94 in the grass and then a lap down after early contact, but Anderson has been the form driver of the series so far.
He leads from the current leader of the Dark Horse Junior category, the #23 Joe Fawcett Motorsports machine of Fawcett, who has a small gap over Jack Perkins in the Triple Eight-backed, HMO Customer Racing-run #888 Shaw and Partners Mustang. Triple Eight Race Engineering enjoyed a great round at Queensland Raceway with a 1-2 finish in Race 2, with series debutant Oli Wickham making an immediate impact in the #88 Shaw and Partners Mustang, winning on his first weekend in the car. He returns this weekend, racing against Fawcett, Matthew Kiss in the #55 Betta Marquee machine, and the #29 Radburn Racing Team of Imogen Radburn, all in the Dark Horse Junior category.
Brock Giblin returns in the #47 Link Signs Racing Mustang, as does Josh Trappett in the #95 Ryan McLeod Racing Cars machine.
Dark Horse Legend sees the return of Ben Dunn’s #8 Red Ass Burrito Mustang, going head-to-head with the #91 Wheels FX Racing car of Keith Kassulke and John Goodacre in the #93 Ryan McLeod Racing Cars machines.
HMO Customer Racing purchases car; enters as standalone entry
HMO Customer Racing enters this weekend with their own car, taking ownership of a former Garry Rogers Motorsport Mustang Dark Horse R, which was raced at Round 1 of the championship by James Golding.
While HMO Customer Racing has been running Triple Eight Race Engineering-owned #888 Shaw and Partners entry from the opening of the series, and added the #88 entry from last round at Queensland Raceway, the new #31 HMO Customer Racing entry is the first to be owned by the team itself. Despite the different ownership, all three cars will share information and data at race events.
In the drivers seat for the #31 HMO Customer Racing entry will be 22-year-old Brock Stinson, who is stepping up from a Toyota GR Cup campaign that has seen four race wins already this season.
Stinson has previously worked as a data engineer for HMO Customer Racing, and was part of the crew supporting Josh Buchan’s TCR World Tour victory in Korea last year. Currently, Stinson is a data engineer for Tigani Motorsport’s GT3 Program, but will be putting that role on hold for this weekend to focus on driver duties.
“It’s great to get the opportunity to jump behind the wheel of the Mustang Dark Horse R with HMO Customer Racing,” said Stinson.
“The Mustang’s a really good car. It’s extremely powerful, and it’s on a really good tyre.
“I have not done too much driving on a slick tyre before, so to jump in there for my first real laps and work out how much grip it has and also how much power it has was really cool. I’m definitely looking forward to racing it in Darwin.
“The whole experience is going to be pretty surreal for me. My first-ever gig working in professional motorsport was with HMO. I started out as a number two mechanic on Josh Buchan’s TCR car at Bathurst in 2021.
“I did the TCR World Tour stuff with HMO last year, going to Korea and China as a data engineer when they campaigned Will Brown and Josh.
“So it’s going to be a bit surreal to be able to go to Darwin with them, but this time as a driver and actually represent them out on the track.
“I’m extremely grateful to Barry [Morcom, team owner] for giving me a shot in the category up against these guys.
“It’s only a one-off at the moment, but I would definitely love to gain some more support to try and do a few more rounds later in the year.”
HMO Customer Racing Team manager Aaron Gretch had this to add:
“We’ve really enjoyed running the Triple Eight Mustang Cup cars, and it’s great that Barry and the team has upped the ante to have our own car out there now too,” said Grech.
“Obviously, we’ve had a great chance to see what this category is about and its potential.
“Working with the Triple Eight guys has been really cool. Barry can see a future in the series and believes in it.
“This event worked out as an important one for Barry’s DPO business. He has a store up in Darwin, so he wanted to have a car on the grid.
“Brock is a known quantity for us, and he has been extremely keen to come and do it. He has been racing extremely well in the GR Cup and is the ideal young driver to start this program.
“It’s also exciting to move to a three-car effort, with all of the cars working together and sharing information, data and resources. It’s a great opportunity for all parties.”
Darwin Supercars Star on for hometown Mustang Cup Australia debut
Also joining the grid this round is former full-time Supercars driver and Darwin local Bryce Fullwood. 28-year-old Fullwood will run the #92 RM Racing Cars Mustang, as his return to top-level motorsports in Australia after missing out on a full-time Supercars drive this season.
Born and raised in Darwin, Fullwood’s entry adds another driver with Supercars experience, and especially at his home track, will be a great yardstick for the up-and-coming talent in the Mustang Cup to measure against.
“This is a great opportunity for me to go out and have a spin on my old home ground,” said Fullwood.
“The Mustang Cup is a new, exciting category. I’ve been watching it from afar, and it looks pretty cool. I’m excited to get in, have a squirt and see what it’s all about.
“The category looks well placed for young drivers trying to climb the ranks and gain experience before moving to Super2 or other GT racing.
“They have a great slick tyre, a big full-size car with decent horsepower, so you can learn many fundamentals to move forward in your career.
“It’s very affordable, it’s got national TV coverage, and Ford is putting a lot of effort in – both for this and all its global motorsport programs.
“So for me, that’s why I think it’s a category that is going to work.
“And it’s exciting to have the SpeedSeries come up to Darwin for the first time.
“It’s the second biggest Australian motorsport championship, and I know that most of the motorsport fans up there are looking forward to it.
“I think the thing that the fans are going to really enjoy about the SpeedSeries is the extra access. The SpeedSeries events aren’t as restricted in certain areas, so if you’re a real race fan, this will be the weekend for you to get up close and personal with the cars and the drivers.”
Supercars Engineer Romy Mayer joins all-female Radburn Racing effort
Experienced engineer Romy Mayer will be on-site this weekend as part of the all-female crewed Radburn Racing Team, bolstering the #29 entry after three rounds working off-site.
After the announcement that Imogen Radburn’s entry to Mustang Cup Australia would be entirely female crewed, Mayer reached out to offer her support and experience to the project.
Mayer came to Australian shores in 2015, joining Triple Eight Race Engineering from Mercedes, where she was involved in their GT3 and DTM programs. She worked as the data and performance engineer in Jamie Whincup’s 2017 championship victory, before heading Triple Eight’s GT World Challenge Asia program in 2019.
More recently, Mayer moved to PremiAir Racing in 2023 and into a chief engineer role, engineering James Golding to the team’s first pole position and race win – the first female to do so in Supercars.
“I messaged Imogen to offer my assistance because it’s not only driver who is female, it’s the whole racing team,” said Mayer.
“It’s quite impressive to put together nowadays and it’s not just the idea of finding females to be part of it, but getting the best females to perform on the event itself.
“I’m super excited to be able to join and hopefully help out to get a good result.
“I think by bringing some race engineering experience within the team will build and grow around Imogen. I will be able to help her driving and coach her on-track, which will be a benefit to Imogen as well as her team.”
“For Romy to call me up and I ask if she could come to Darwin was a dream come true for not only myself, but the team as well,” said Radburn.
“We’ve had Romy on the phone for the last few rounds and to have on the ground will be awesome. Romy’s not just an engineer, she’s a driver coach, the works and it will be invaluable to have someone of her experience part of the team.
“I’ve learnt a lot so far from a driving side and also away from the track through running my own team with how that works. I think this has been the best thing we’ve done and it’s about finishing the races. We’re getting closer and closer to the frontrunners through our improvements at each round.”
Mustang Cup Australia will feature a Qualifying and Race on each of Saturday and Sunday this weekend, with the broadcast available on Fox Sports 506/Kayo in Australia, and the Ford Racing YouTube channel worldwide.
