The Albury-based squad has purchased an ex-Tickford Racing Ford Mustang to run alongside its ex-Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore ZB in the Super2 Series.
It’ll campaign the two cars in addition to the ex-Triple Eight Chevrolet Camaro that the ambitious outfit plans to field in as many as three Supercars Championship wildcard events.
MCM’s Mustang is the car that started 2024 in the hands of Jett Johnson and AIM Motorsport. Dean Fiore stepped in for the Townsville round but crashed heavily due to a brake failure.
“We’re currently pulling the engine out of it so we can send it off to the jig to get it repaired and ready for next year,” team boss Amin Chahda told Speedcafe.
“The plan at this stage is for Jackson Rice to drive the Mustang and to put Blake Tracey in the ZB.”
TA2 star Rice raced MCM’s Commodore at Bathurst in October while Tracey, a teenage Hyundai Excel driver, has tested with the team twice this year including last week.
MCM’s Mustang began life as an FG X Falcon, debuted by Cam Waters in 2018.
It was converted to a Mustang and spent two more years in Waters’ hands before further main game outings with James Courtney and Thomas Randle.
MCM also has an option on a second ex-Tickford Mustang but has held off on completing the deal pending signing a driver to race the car.
Chahda says running both Ford and Holden equipment in Super2 will be no big deal.
“The thing that everyone forgets is that if you run two cars, you’ve got to have two lots of spares,” he said. “So, what’s the difference if it’s a Mustang or a ZB? It’s same-same.”
The team does have somewhat of a head start, given that its ZB currently runs Tickford-sourced components.
“At the end of last year the Commodore became a bit of a ‘hybrid’,” said Chahda.
“It’s got the Tickford front-end in it. The front-end and rear-end are identical to the Mustang, it’s only the panels and the engines that are different.
“I’ll be honest, we have struggled with it since we’ve done it, but I think we’re on top of it now. The car was really good [during the test] on Wednesday.”
The team tested with the Commodore at Winton last week ahead of the Adelaide Super2 finale, which is a milestone round for MCM.
It’ll be the last in Super2 for Amin’s son Matt, who has competed in the series since 2015 but will opt to focus on the main game wildcard program next year.
Having run a Bathurst 1000 wildcard in 2022 and then the Sandown and Bathurst double this year, MCM wants to step that program up further in 2025.
“We’ll definitely do the enduros, The Bend and Bathurst, and we might do Darwin or something like that so Matt can get a bit of experience,” said Amin.
“At Bathurst, Matt was put up against the primaries. We had two Super2 driver against people doing this week in, week out. It was a big ask and we still managed to beat some of them.”
There was even talk of running a wildcard in this year’s Adelaide 500, but that did not eventuate.
“There just wasn’t enough time,” said Chahda. “We were trying to get a big name in it, but there wasn’t enough time to do everything properly.”
MCM’s Supercars effort runs from within the Chahda family’s road car servicing and spare parts business, allowing the transfer of staff.
“I have one full-time person starting next year who will be running the Super2 cars,” Chahda added.
“For the main game we just do it ourselves. I’ve got a workshop, so I’ve got four mechanics here, and my eldest son is the #1 mechanic for Super2. Between us all we just get it done.”
