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Take one father and his son with only small engined car experience at Bathurst’s awesome Mt Panorama, blend in a savvy V8 experienced sharp shooter, and suddenly there is a new strong contender for outright favourite contention for the 2008 WPS Bathurst 12 Hour this weekend.

Now the combination has decided to undertake this year’s fledgling endurance classic in their Holden and has brought in the experience Terry Wyhoon to guide their fortunes in the event which is also the opening round of the 2008 Shannons Australian Production Car Championship.

“Today has been about finding our way around, getting the brakes bedded and general setup,” said Leigh Mertens. “Dad had his first laps in the car – well he did ten laps at Calder when it was a SS in 2006, and Terry will have his first drive in this afternoon’s session.”

Their HSV is in High Performance Rear-Wheel-Drive Class B and finished practice session one fifth in class with Mertens Snr doing most of the laps to acquaint himself with the car. Then Wyhoon’s first session elevated the team to second – and indications are high that when qualifying arises, this combination will be at the pointy end of the field.

“We got down into the 37’s and could have gone quicker but for a front strut problem where we had no camber on one side,” commented Wyhoon. “There is at least another three seconds in the car once we get things sorted, and that should put us on the pace.”

Driver Profile

·      Leigh Mertens (Vic) – son of David and Production Car racer who started in small engine capacity Class C cars before moving to Class A Commodore and Class SP HSV GTS which finished fourth outright in 2007 Championship.

·      David Mertern (Vic) – father of Leigh with vast experience in Production Cars.

·      Terry Wyhoon (Vic) – raced AUSCAR and NASCAR throughout the heights of its Australian popularity, then V8 Supercars in various series.