Tigani Engineer Stinson Lands Seat for Hidden Valley

Brock Stinson has been handed an opportunity to contest next weekend’s Motorcraft Mustang Cup Australia at Hidden Valley Raceway with HMO Customer Racing.

The 22-year-old from Sydney, who combines racing with data engineering duties for Tigani Motorsport’s GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS program, will pilot the newly-acquired No. 31 Mustang Dark Horse R at the Darwin circuit.

HMO will run a car under its own banner for the first time at Hidden Valley alongside the cars it runs on behalf of Triple Eight Race Engineering for Jack Perkins and Oli Wickham, who won on his debut last time out at Queensland.

The No. 31 machine was previously piloted by James Golding at the Phillip Island opener, where it picked up a second-finish.

Stinson’s main race program this year is in the one-make GR Cup series, and sits second in the standings with four wins from six so far.

“It’s great to get the opportunity to jump behind the wheel of the Mustang Dark Horse R with HMO Customer Racing,” he said.

“I have not done too much driving on a slick tire 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, HMO 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.”