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World Rally Star, V8 Drivers And An All Female Team For WPS Bathurst 12 Hour |
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Monday, 02 April 2007 |
With less than a week remaining prior to the start of the 2007 WPS Bathurst International Motor Festival teams are working feverously to ensure their machines are fully prepared for the WPS 12-Hour Showroom Enduro at Mount Panorama, Bathurst.
Australia’s World Rally Championship star Chris Atkinson will lead the way for the Subaru Motorsport entry in the feature event. With the young Queenslander pairing up with Australian and Asia-Pacific Rally Champion Cody Crocker and Western Australian Dean Herridge the trio will make a formidable combination to battle for outright honours.
Atkinson has finished on the podium in a round of the World Rally
Championship and is currently seventh in the standings after last
weekend’s fifth round in Portugal. He jetted out of Europe last night
to arrive in time for this weekend’s WPS Bathurst 12-Hour Showroom
Enduro.
The second Subaru entry will be driven by media personality, and part
time V8 Supercar driver, Grant Denyer, former Bathurst 12-Hour race
winner Neil Crompton and rising star Chris Alajajian.
Holden Motorsport will be out to chase outright honours with its lead
Holden Astra VXR Coupe which will be driven by V8 Supercar drivers
Jason Richards, Shane Price and Jack Perkins. Nathan Pretty, who was a
part of the winning team during the inaugural 24-Hour race at Bathurst,
completes the four driver line-up.
Perkins said he was delighted with the opportunity to again race at Bathurst, having last October
made his debut on the track his father won at six times.
“I’m looking forward to making two Bathurst trips in one year,” Perkins said.
“It will also be good to last 12 hours rather than two minutes, which is what happened to me in the 1000 last year!
“Both Shane and I have never driven Astras before, so this will be an
experience. It will also be great to share driving with two experienced
V8 guys from other teams which you rarely get the chance to do.”
An all-female crew will pilot the second Holden entry with the
experienced Leanne Tander teaming up Samantha Reid, Christina Orr and
Lauren Gray in a diesel powered Astra CDTI Turbo.
“Holden has been able to assemble a very good group of girl drivers; all are very good in their own categories,” Tander said.
“The first rule of motor racing is to beat your team-mates and, of course, we want to beat the boys in their Astra.
“Our main goal is to finish the race. If we can do that we will
surprise a lot of people as the Astra CDTi Diesel has the advantage of
not needing to stop as often.”
V8 Supercar driver Paul Morris will pair up with leading Carrera Cup
driver Craig Baird and reigning Australian Performance Car Champion
Garry Holt in the Eastern Creek Karts backed twin-turbo BMW 335i.
Both Baird and Morris are veterans of the Bathurst 1000, whilst Baird
has recent endurance racing experience behind the wheel of a Porsche
Turbo in Dubai, and in the famed Nurburgring 24 hour event in Germany.
Morris also finished third in the Bathurst 24 hour in 2003 driving a
Porsche 911.
After recently re-writing the Australian Touring Car/V8 Supercar
Championship record books when he notched up the most number of round
starts, veteran John Bowe will line up in the WPS 12-Hour Showroom
Enduro alongside Sydney drivers Chris Delfsma and Jack Elsgood.
In total there are 35 cars in the final entry list with no less than a dozen drivers having V8 Supercar experience.
The WPS 12-Hour Showroom Enduro will start at 5:45am on Sunday April 8.
In addition to the 35 cars entered for the WPS 12-Hour Showroom Enduro
there will also be 11 further races around the 6.21km Mount Panorama
circuit during the WPS Bathurst International Motor Festival.
A capacity field of 55 Historic Touring Cars, 43 Aussie Racing Cars –
which provided some scintillating racing at last year’s Festival, 31
Commodore Cup Cars and 26 GT Championship cars will be in action
throughout the weekend.
Along with the WPS 12-Hour Showroom Enduro and the 11 support races to
be contested throughout the weekend there will be plenty of other
entertainment including the opening round of the Freestyle Motorcross
(FMX) Nationals sponsored by Freerider MX magazine and Skin Industries.
Almost 60 entries have been received for the FMX event including a lot
of riders from country New South Wales, Northern Territory, South
Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria and even Flinders Island.
There will also be a drift battle with eight drivers confirmed to be a
part of the action including current Australian champ Beau Yates, dual
Australian champion Darren Appleton. There will also be a team of three
drivers from Western Australia including the winner of round one of the
2007 Drift Australia Championship held in Perth last month.
The WPS Bathurst International Motor Festival will be held at Mount
Panorama from April 6 – 8. Tickets are available from ticketek
www.ticketek.com.au.
Every person who buys a ticket to the Bathurst International Motor
Festival, will receive complimentary entry to the National Motor Racing
Museum over the Festival.
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