Anna Stone, a woman amongst men at Stone Brothers Racing

Wednesday, 24 February 2010 17:59

Stone Brothers Racing is one of the most respected teams in the Australian V8 Supercars series.

Setup by brothers Ross and Jim Stone in 1998 SBR has an impressive history. Among their most notable achievements are leading rising Nascar star Marcos Ambrose to back-to-back V8 Supercar Championships in 2003 and 2004, and his team mate Russel Ingall to the Championship the year after. It is no surprise then that the Stone Brothers Racing workshop contains plenty of silverware! Their collection was added to just this week when SBR driver Shane van Gisbergen finished third in the second race at Abu Dhabi.

For this week’s Power Fix I interviewed the Team’s Media and Communications Manager, Anna Stone, to find out more about what it’s like to work in a V8 Supercar Team, what she loves most about it and find out if she has any advice for women wanting to get involved in such a male dominated sport.

How and when did you get involved in motorsports?
I was born into motorsport. My father (Ross Stone) was a driver and won the Gold Star (New Zealand Championship Series) in 77/78 season of Formula Atlantic (Pacific) Series. Ross started in the Australian Touring Car Championship (which is now the V8 Supercars Championship) the year I was born 1985. In 1992 he was Team Manager at Dick Johnson Racing but I was in my first year of high school when Stone Brothers Racing first started in 1998, and at the time I never thought I would end up working here!

I have never really known anything other than motorsport and it’s certainly made life a bit more exciting at times.

Did you face any difficulties getting into it and if so how did you overcome them?
I guess the hardest part about being in V8 Supercars is proving that I deserve this role with SBR and that I’m not just here taking up room because I’m the bosses daughter! I think originally I wanted to get into it to be closer with my dad and spend more time with him but now it’s what I am most passionate about.

It not an easy industry to get into, every week we get about 15 requests for jobs so I remind myself a lot how lucky I am!

Tell me a little about the Stone Brothers Racing Team in your own words?

Well first and foremost it’s a family business, my dad, uncle, cousins, brother and sister all work there so it’s not always easy! We have our moments but I love working and travelling with them most of the time.

Jimmy and Ross are what I like to think of as ‘old school’ racers, they are not in the V8 game for money and never have been. They are extremely loyal to their sponsors and staff, which is rare these days.

SBR has had some great triumphs over the years, winning the championship in 2003, 2004 and 2005 so I have a great deal of respect for what they have achieved.

What is the culture in the workshop like?
It’s always interesting working with 30 guys when you’re one of the only females!

The team spend a lot of time together so we certainly all have our moments but at the end of the day we all get along really well. Chris Wilson, who is our commercial manager, is like my big brother so I’m lucky I have him around for when things get a bit too much! I work with the drivers mostly when away at race meetings and I’m lucky that Shane [van Gisbergen, 20], Alex [Davison, 30] and Tim [Slade, 25] are a great group of guys. They couldn’t be more different from each either which keeps it interesting.

What is your role in the team?
I am the Media and Communications manager which means I work with the Commercial Department on keeping our sponsors and team partners happy. I also write and distribute all the team media releases and news, compile the driver schedules and go with the drivers to every appearance to make sure they say and wear the right thing!

What does a typical day at the track involve for you?
An early start usually! We all eat every meal at the track so we tend to start the day having breakfast in the team catering facilities around 7:00-8:00am. On the day before the actual racing schedule starts I am in a car with the drivers for most of the day driving around town doing media and sponsor appearances.

When the cars are out on track, I have a headset on in the pits and take notes on each session/race, I then get quotes from the drivers and head to the media centre to send out my release.

What about a typical day in the workshop?
Unlike the boys who work 7am to 5pm every day I am only in the office 9 to 5 so I guess you could say I picked the right department to work in! On a normal day I am at my desk answering emails, servicing the team website and speaking with sponsors and media on upcoming appearances or promos.

Working for a V8 Supercar team looks exciting from the outside, but is this actually the case? Are there a lot of late nights, etc?
It’s interesting because a lot of people always say to me that I’m so lucky because I get to travel and see the world when in actual fact we only see the airport and the racetrack!

There are a lot of late nights if we have had a big incident on track, and there are always plenty of long nights and weekends at the start of the year. That being said it can be extremely exciting when all things are going well on the track. In Abu Dhabi recently we scored a podium which was Shane’s first in his V8 career and its moments like that I love working in the industry.

What do you like most about the Team and/or V8 Supercars?
Probably the people I work with and that every couple of weeks I get to leave the office, I think I would go crazy if had to sit behind a desk day in and day out.

When we do get to the end of the season everyone is pretty tired, it feels like you are never home sometimes. When Christmas comes around the last thing I feel like doing is travelling anywhere so I love to stay home and relax when I can.

What do you like least about the Team and/or V8 Supercars?
I hate the whole process of flying!

What is the level of staff turnover in the Team?
I’d imagine like most sporting teams we have a normal amount of staff turnover, people come and go and change teams but a lot come back. Most of the staff at SBR have been there for over five years.

What are your future career aspirations?
I am not sure yet, I am happy with where I am at for now. I have never really aspired to run my own business but maybe one day............

I would love to move to Italy for a couple of years and learn the language but I’ll wait until I’m sick of working in V8’s before I buy a plane ticket!

What do you like to do to relax?
I love to stay home when I can, we travel so much during the year so it’s nice to kick back in your own house and sleep in your own bed when you can.

I moved house two days before we flew over to the Middle East, and am now living with Tim Slade and Jack Perkins (Larry Perkins’ son), something tells me there won’t be much relaxing going on anymore as they love to go out and have a good time!

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
“It takes all types of people to make the world go round.” And in motorsport you certainly meet some interesting ones!

What advice would you give to other women wanting to get involved in V8 Supercars?
Go for it, we need more females in the sport. In order to survive in a male dominated environment like V8 Supercars you have to be able to laugh at yourself, tune out and ignore the male conversation at times and most importantly stand up for yourself.

On behalf of Girlracer Magazine, I’d like to thank Anna for her time and for providing some very insightful answers! Chelsea Woods http://www.girlracer.co.uk