CAMS Offices (Sports House) Cnr. Caxton & Castlemaine Streets, Milton Q 4064. Meeting Start - 7.45pm approx. Pre Meeting Drinkies and Feed up at the Paddo Tavern as usual.
The Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships will have a decidedly international flavour when round two of the series hits Tasmania’s Symmons Plains Raceway on April 10-11.
Drivers from as far afield as Holland, the United Kingdom, China, Singapore and New Zealand are all slated to race, adding some international spice to the already competitive fields.
The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Australia Series presented by Mission Foods will provide one of the more interesting combinations, with Singaporean Yuey Tan teaming up with Dutch-Chinese driver Danny Chu, in a squad led by New Zealander Andy McElrea.
For Tan, a regular in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia series, the opportunity to race in Australia is simply too good to pass up.
“The Australian series is a very different proposition to the Asian series, the circuits are very different, and we are getting experience with a different brand and culture of racing,” Tan said.
“I actually grew up in Adelaide, so I appreciate the way things are done in Australia.”
Even though Tan is a solid performer on the Asian circuit, he is under no illusions as to the challenge of racing down under.
“The quality of the drivers in the GT3 Cup Challenge is very good,” Tan said.
“We had Matt Kingsley (reigning Australian Champion) out testing with McElrea Racing in a recent test day in Malaysia, and within ten laps he was clocking times only a few tenths off the best times for the day.
“It was very impressive.”
Tan and Chu’s two car team will run under the Wimobilize banner, with the pair running identical liveries for the remaining rounds of the GT3 Cup Challenge Australia Series presented by Mission Foods, which also takes in the Shannons Nationals rounds at Mallala, Morgan Park, Eastern Creek and Sandown.
The international attack will continue in the Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship, after young New Zealander Mitch Evans stole the show at the opening round at Wakefield Park, with a clean sweep of the three races.
Englishman Ben Barker will back, and he hopes to turn his opening round speed into a solid points haul, while China’s Zhang Shan Qi will be looking to continue his learning curve aboard his Team BRM prepared Dallara.
The third and final race for the weekend will see the return of the Formula 3 Superprix to the circuit after a one year hiatus, with the race scheduled for 30 laps.
The Australian Manufacturers Championship will continue in Tasmania with the second round of their championship, following on from February’s Bathurst 12 Hour which for the first time counted for series points.
The production based racers will take on a new event in 2010, the Australian Six Hour at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway in July, with the remaining meetings at Symmons Plains, Phillip Island, Morgan Park and Sandown all consisting of a pair of one-hour long mini-endurance heats.
The change in format will see teams able to enter two drivers at all meetings, with the championship point score based on the first car across the finish line, and not class positions as has been the case in recent seasons.
Completing the on-track line up for Symmons Plains will be the Shannons V8 Touring Cars Series, which will see the class for former-V8 supercars travel to Tasmania for the first time.
Making the long trip across Nullarbor Plain as well as Bass Strait will be Perth based series debutant Matt Hansen, who will be joined by fellow West Australian Dean Kovacevich at the second round of their series at South Australia’s Mallala Motor Sport Park in May.
All four classes will be racing on both days of the meeting, with special festivities scheduled throughout the event to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of racing at Symmons Plains.
For further information on the 2010 Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships, visit www.thenationals.com.au.
