Ross and Jim Stone were veterans of Australian touring car racing long before forming their own team. Ross won the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship twice in the 1970s, and the brothers worked together as team manager and chief engineer respectively across several operations through the 1980s and early 1990s. They engineered a Holden VK Commodore for Graeme Crosby in 1986, ran Nissan Skyline DR30s for Team Nissan New Zealand in 1987, and worked with various Ford Sierra-based cars through the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The brothers were reunited at Dick Johnson Racing in 1992, where they oversaw victories in the 1994 Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 endurance races, as well as John Bowe's 1995 series championship and Sandown 500 win. This experience positioned them to launch their own team.
The team's origins trace to Alan Jones Racing, established in 1996 with Ross and Jim each holding a one-third ownership stake alongside 1980 Formula One World Champion Alan Jones. Racing initially as Pack Leader Racing, the team competed in 1996 and 1997 before the Stone brothers bought out Jones's share at the end of that year and renamed the outfit Stone Brothers Racing.
SBR entered the 1998 season as a single-car team with Jason Bright driving a Pirtek-sponsored Ford EL Falcon, also running a customer car for Larkham Motor Sport. The debut season produced an immediate highlight: Bright and co-driver Steven Richards won the Bathurst 1000, with the sister car of Mark Larkham and Brad Jones finishing fourth. It was a statement of intent from a new team.
After Bright departed to pursue opportunities in the United States and Larkham went independent, SBR expanded to a two-car operation for 2000 with Craig Baird and Tony Longhurst. The team signed young talent for 2001, bringing in Marcos Ambrose and David Besnard. Ambrose won a round in his debut season and impressed with his qualifying pace. Both drivers returned in 2002, combining for two round wins.
The 2003 and 2004 seasons saw SBR become the dominant force in the championship. With Ambrose in the Pirtek Falcon and Russell Ingall in the Caltex entry, the team was virtually unbeatable. Ambrose won the 2003 championship with six round victories and took the title again in 2004, with Ingall finishing runner-up that year — a 1–2 finish for the team in the standings. SBR won the Teams Championship in both years. During the 2003 Development Series, Mark Winterbottom won the title in an SBR Ford AU Falcon.
In 2005, Ingall claimed the championship for SBR through consistency rather than outright speed, recording one round win but accumulating points steadily. Ambrose had led the standings until an incident with Greg Murphy at the Bathurst 1000 derailed his campaign; he finished third overall. SBR took the Teams Championship for a third consecutive time, capping a remarkable three-year run of dominance.
Ambrose left V8 Supercars after 2005 to pursue a NASCAR career in the United States, and major sponsor Pirtek withdrew. Former Formula One test driver James Courtney joined for 2006, partnering Ingall. While results were inconsistent, Courtney won Rookie of the Year honours, and the team performed strongly at the Bathurst 1000 with Courtney and Glenn Seton finishing third and Ingall and Luke Youlden fourth.
Shane van Gisbergen replaced Ingall in 2008, paired with Courtney. Courtney recorded his first race win at Queensland Raceway — the team's nominated test track — that year. Courtney departed after 2008 and Alex Davison took over, followed by Lee Holdsworth in 2012. Tim Slade and van Gisbergen continued to anchor the second car through the final years.
The team was based in Yatala on the Gold Coast throughout its existence, using Lakeside Raceway initially and later Queensland Raceway as its test venue.
Stone Brothers Racing developed or showcased several significant talents. Marcos Ambrose, who won back-to-back championships with the team, went on to a long NASCAR career. James Courtney, who began his V8 Supercars career with SBR, later became a series champion with another team. Shane van Gisbergen, who drove for SBR from 2008 to 2012, went on to become one of the most successful Supercars drivers of the following decade.
The team's record included three drivers' championships (Ambrose 2003 and 2004, Ingall 2005), three teams' championships (2003, 2004, 2005), and the 1998 Bathurst 1000. Their period of dominance from 2003 to 2005 remains one of the most complete stretches of success by any team in the championship's modern era.
At the end of 2012 the team was sold to Erebus Motorsport. Ross Stone remained as team manager through 2014 before establishing Ross Stone Racing in GT competition. Jim Stone went on to run Matt Stone Racing in the Development Series with his son.