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Experienced driver trainer and race
car driver, Warren Luff, has taken on
arguably one of his toughest assignments – becoming the Driving Standards
Officer for the new MINI CHALLENGE – which begins at Eastern Creek across the
weekend of March 7-9.
If anyone knows about racing in a
single manufacturer Series – it’s Warren. Having taken victory twice in a Series
conducted for Mitsubishi Mirages and two rough and tumble Australian V8 Ute
Series Titles, coupled with racing one make Series’ in Malaysia and New Zealand,
he knows every trick in the book when it comes to racing identical
machines.
“From my experience in this type of
competition, I feel I can bring a pretty good insight to the role of Driving
Standards Officer,” he said. “For sure, it will be different to look at things
from the other side of the fence, but it will be an interesting challenge for
me.”
It will be Warren’s role to watch each
MINI CHALLENGE race and liaise between the stewards of the meeting and
competitors to ensure that appropriate driving standards are upheld. Warren will also be able to
invoke his profession in his role of DSO – that of professional driving
instructor – providing guidance to some of the more inexperienced racers in the
field.
“There’s a real mix of drivers in
MINI CHALLENGE and in many ways, I can relate to all of them,” Warren continued. “There
are a few guys who will use MINI CHALLENGE as the starting point to bigger
things in their careers, whilst there are other guys who have raced V8s who are
looking for a ‘re-birth’ of sorts. I’ve personally been in both positions, so I
understand that direction and hopefully I can use my experience to help those
guys.”
Adding to Luff’s appeal, according
to MINI CHALLENGE CEO, Theo Psaros,
is the fact that at 31, he is around the age of most drivers taking part in the
Series.
“With Warren being just over the age of 30 and an
active racing driver, he is very appealing to MINI CHALLENGE,” Theo said. “Many
of the younger competitors in MINI CHALLENGE can relate to him and throughout
his career, he has built the respect of many in the industry with his mature and
considered approach to racing.
“MINI CHALLENGE is all about
translating the brand values of MINI from the road to the race track, many of
which are targeted towards lifestyle and a youthful, innovative projection, so
Warren fits that
bill perfectly.”
Warren has the opportunity to strut
his stuff on track at four of the events MINI CHALLENGE visits, two as part of a
30 minute V8 Supercar ‘Rookie Session’ for non-full time V8 Supercar endurance
race drivers (Eastern Creek and Sandown) and as a co-driver with a leading team
in the L&H 500 at Phillip Island and the Super Cheap Auto 1000 at Bathurst.
MINI CHALLENGE is a Series utilising
identical MINI John Cooper Works CHALLENGE racecars, built to spec and freighted
to Australia by BMW
Motorsport in Germany. It will race using a control
Dunlop slick racing tyre.
The Series encompasses eight rounds
and has attracted a television package that includes four hours live television
coverage and over seven hours coverage in total.
MINI CHALLENGE welcomes
Warren Luff to the team as its first
Driving Standards Officer.
The full calendar for the 2008 MINI
CHALLENGE is as follows:
Round 1: March 7-9 – Eastern Creek,
Sydney, NSW
Round 2: April 4-6 – Wakefield Park, Goulburn,
NSW*
Round 3: May 9-11 – Barbagallo,
Perth, WA
Round 4: June 7-9 – Sandown,
Melbourne, Vic
Round 5: September 12-14 –
Phillip
Island,
Vic
Round 6: October 9-12 – Mount
Panorama, Bathurst, NSW
Round 7: November 21-23 – Symmons Plains, Tasmania
Round 8: December 4-7 –
Oran Park, Sydney, NSW
*Denotes V8 Supercar Development
Series round
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