Red Bull Racing Australia has officially announced that two-time MotoGP champion Casey Stoner will race a V8 Supercar in 2013, confirming a long-suspected plan for both driver and team to enter the sport in what will be a first for both parties.
Competing in the V8 Supercar Dunlop Development Series in Craig Lowndes’ 2010 Bathurst-winning Triple Eight Race Engineering-built VE Commodore, 27-year-old Stoner will drive the No.27 Red Bull Racing Australia Pirtek Holden in all seven rounds under the watchful eye of Triple Eight managing director Roland Dane.
After first meeting the Triple Eight team in 2011, Stoner completed his first V8 Supercar test later that year before becoming a regular in the team’s garage throughout the 2012 championship winning series, further fuelling rumours of the shift in motorsport discipline.
Stoner will get two more test days prior to round one of the Dunlop Series, kicking off at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide on March 28.
Red Bull and Triple Eight Race Engineering officially began their new V8 Supercars joint venture on January 1, 2013, with the official unveiling of the all-new Red Bull Racing Australia VF Holden Commodore due in the coming weeks.
