MATT Stone Racing won’t be the only team blooding a debutant race engineer at this weekend’s Penrite Oil Sandown 500.

Just as Oli Boone is stepping up from data engineering duties to lead the charge on Nick Percat’s #10 Bendix Camaro, Erebus is similarly giving the prodigy of its brains trust his first big break.

That is Aidan Graham, who will call the shots on Jack Le Brocq’s #9 Tyrepower Chev for Sandown and Adelaide.

Erebus has brought in Daniel Frencham – who has several years’ experience with Garry Rogers Motorsport – to fill Graham’s shoes as the data engineer across both cars.

All this allows Barry Ryan to resume more of a management role at the track, having juggled CEO and race engineering responsibilities through the first 11 rounds.

Le Brocq, who will return to MSR in the coming off-season, welcomed the opportunity for Graham.

“It’s exciting. Aidan has never been on the phone in the main game before, so it’s pretty cool, thrown in the deep end there and put him under pressure,” the two-time race winner told V8 Sleuth.

“We have got two half-hour sessions for him to iron out all his little bits and pieces and then we’re straight into qualifying on Saturday morning.

“It’s an awesome experience for Aidan and a good chance for him to get a couple of rounds under his belt.

“A baptism of fire for the young fella – it’s going to be good.

“I’m looking forward to working with him, we get along really well and he’s a smart young fella.”

Jack Le Brocq (right) with Jarrod Hughes. Pic: Mark Walker

Erebus should have a solid baseline to work from at Sandown, Le Brocq himself having challenged for a podium at last year’s ‘500’ before being the victim of an aggressive late-race move by Matt Payne.

“It’s super soft tyre for Saturday, so same as what we ran here last year, and the (new) soft tyre has thrown a spanner in the works all year which has been interesting,” said Le Brocq.

“We have got a good base so there’s plenty to build on from there.

“We’re still trying to find a bit of form for our side of the garage so fingers crossed we can get that back this weekend.

“It’s a place I love and usually go well at, so fingers crossed we can get back to where we should be.”

The first of two Repco Supercars Championship practice sessions today starts 1:30pm AEDT.

The Undercut – It’s Finals Time!

Breaking down the latest in the world of Supercars – Gold Coast, Sandown and more!