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V8 Supercar: Bathurst Driver Names Co-Driver For Wakefield 300
As he prepares for his return to circuit racing this weekend in the Wakefield 300 at Wakefield Park, 21 year old Bathurst driver Terry Nightingale has named Wagga V8 Supercar debutant Hayden Pullen as his co-driver in the 137 lap, 300 km race.
For Wakefield Parks annual and popular mini-endurance race, Nightingale and Pullen will drive a ‘Future Racer’ owned by Canberra’s Chris Clearihan, a former Australian sports car champion who won lasts years 300 km race in another Future Racer.
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An extremely versatile driver with many years experience in a range of categories, Pullen will drive in this weekend’s race less than a week ahead of his V8 Supercar debut in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar race at the Sydney Telstra 500.
For this weekend’s meeting at Wakefield Park, the Bathurst/Wagga team will be supporting the local ‘Get Knotted’ tie campaign, which is designed to raise awareness to Prostate Cancer in men.
The Get Knotted Tie Challenge was instigated in Bathurst by the cities Deputy Mayor Ian North along with councillor Bobby Bourke, and will be conducted on Thursday 11 February 2010, the day before the 2010 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour Race.
On that day they hope to make it into the Guinness Book of Records by knotting together thousands of men’s ties all the way around the Mount Panorama race circuit in an attempt to set a world record.
Race goers are being urged to take a tie to this weekends meeting at Wakefield Park and place them in special containers at the circuit, at the same time picking up information on Prostate Cancer.
For the highly talented Nightingale this will be the first circuit race he has had since he competed in NSW HQ Holden Championship rounds at Eastern Creek and Oran Park in an Auto Mate HQ in 2006.
Since then he has not competed in circuit racing due to a lack of finance, but has been a regular competitor and tasted success in various types of events run by the Bathurst Light Car Club on dirt and tarmac.
While this will be his debut race meeting at Wakefield Park, he does know the circuit very well, as he took in a track day with the very experienced local race driver instructor Mike Reedy and two of the Chance of a Lifetime competitions.
The first was in 2005 in Daewoo Lanos’ and ’06 driving the Lotus Exige cars when he finished 4th from 30 contestants and failed to qualify for the final at Eastern Creek by a mere 6/1000 of a second.
The whole deal for his entry in the Wakefield 300 was put together in less than a week, for Nightingale was planning to drive at the meeting in the Hopwood 100 HQ Holden race with Sydney driver Steve Williams, but Williams was forced to withdraw due to a licencing discrepancy.
There have therefore been many people involved from different centres around the state that made the drive possible, and having a father with more than 40 years in the sport didn’t hurt.
After the HQ deal fell through, Williams a former racing team-mate of Nightingale’s father former touring car racer Brian Nightingale, suggested he approach Clearihan to obtain a car for the weekend, which he did and the Canberra driver a former racing rival of Nightingale senior offered his second car, but it required an engine change.
Enter John Murden of Sydney, another of Nightingale senior’s ‘former racing rival’s who travelled to Canberra and spent two days in Clearihan’s race-workshop assisting in the preparation of the car.
Then a co-driver was required, and the Wagga ‘HP Racing’ driver was chosen due to his impressive record around the nation with many wins in Karting, Speedway, the biodiesel Supertruck Series, V8 Brute Ute racing in the Super TT V8 Ute class in the AMRS series and more recently with impressive tests with Seiders Racing in V8 Supercars ahead of next weeks V8 Supercar debut.
On top of that he has incredible engineering skills including race-car suspension setup, engine building and Dyno tuning using his vast knowledge of ECU setup and tuning on his Dyno Dynamics Dyno.
Local sponsors also played a big part, with Opportunity Shop, Peter Rogers Real Estate, Windsors Automotive, Stumpys on Stewart, Burkes Transport.
Last years 300km race at Wakefield Park saw Clearihan and Stephen Wilde win in the Future Racer, from Merrick Malouf with V8 Ute racer and former first grade rugby league player Jack Elsgood in an XR8 Ford Falcon V8 Ute, whilst third was Colin Faulkner and John McKenzie in a Mazda MX-5.
This weekends meeting features races for HQ Holdens, Super TT/ Production Cars, Mazda MX5’s, Superkarts, Future Racers and the feature event the Wakefield 300 which is open to all comers, and has attracted a 25 car field.
Both Saturday and Sunday’s on track action will kick off at 9.00am, and admission for this event on both days is free.
PaddockTalk Perspective
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