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Australian GT; From The Mountain To The Streets
• 25-car GT grid for Adelaide
• Reigning Champion and 2012 Clipsal winner leads points chase into Adelaide
• Ex-F1 regular joins Erebus Motorsport
• Former V8 Supercar star and Carrera Cup Champion Craig Baird in contention
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After an incredible opening round of the season at Bathurst’s Mount Panorama during the annual 12-Hour [February 8-10], the Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli now turns to the notorious streets of Adelaide for the second round in a month.
Typically, Bathurst has had an impact on the field for Clipsal, with five Australian GT regulars badly damaged during the course of the 12-Hour event, but due to some truly herculean efforts by the VIP Petfoods [Tony Quinn Aston Martin] and Melbourne Performance Centre [Rod Salmon Audi R8] teams, their cars will be on the grid at Clipsal, whilst for Roger Lago, he found another way around the problem..
“I’ve managed to find another car, and whilst it’s not as current as my newer LP600, it’s close,” he admitted with resignation.. “Look I was pretty upset with the result at Bathurst, which was purely an accident, but what upset me was a chance to contest the whole series, and for the second year in a row I was going to miss Clipsal and any chance of building a championship. The turnaround to get the original car fixed was just too short with the damage that was done, but parts are on their way, however this will at least get me through the Adelaide weekend.
“A car I’ve never driven, on a circuit I’ve never driven.. it should be fun,” the two-time Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge champion shrugged.
Sadly though of the five cars that failed to finish the 12-Hour race, Maranello Motorsport were unable to effect repairs on their Ferrari 458 in time to make Clipsal, whilst Trofeo Motorsport are still working around the clock to get the Corvette Z06.R back into the field.
Team Manager Mark Coffey admitted that whilst disappointed not to be at Clipsal, it gives the Maranello team time to upgrade the car to 2013 FIA GT3-spec. “Fortunately the front of the car was okay, [the] engine and gearbox were fine, but getting the rear chassis member out from Italy in time was going to be too difficult. The way these cars are built you can unbolt the chassis at the rear from behind the bulkhead and replace it, but forward from that everything was okay, however time was against us. We’ll now concentrate on upgrading the car to 2013-spec ahead of the Phillip Island round in May.”
“The team are working tirelessly to get the car on the grid,” Trofeo Motorsport’s Jim Manolios admitted. “Our biggest holdup will be securing parts out of Callaway in Europe, so we hope we can get them here in time. The team did brilliantly at Bathurst in the short time they had [after Greg Murphy’s qualifying crash] - so I know from our end we’ll be okay, but we can’t control how quickly they can supply from overseas. We’re hopeful though, fingers crossed..”
Whilst the impact of Bathurst has affected the entry numbers for the Clipsal weekend, across at the 12-Hour winning Erebus Motorsport team, there has been a change of driver for the #63 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, with 12-Hour runner-up Craig Baird replacing reigning series vice-champion Peter Hackett for the remainder of the season.
“Racing against both these cars at the Bathurst 12-Hour was incredibly tough - for the last two years Erebus Motorsport has finished in front of me,” said Baird - who raced for Asian team, Clearwater Racing. “Now to drive one of Erebus Motorsport's SLS AMG GT3 cars on my own, at a challenging track like Adelaide is very exciting.”
Baird wasn’t the only announcement of a new pilot for the Erebus team’s ‘gullwings’ with former Formula One pilot Christian Klien revealed as the driver of the #47 entry for Clipsal, with both drivers possibilities for the remainder of the season.
“When I was growing up, I remember watching the Adelaide Grand Prix on television and it was a very challenging track, it has a lot of history in the sport with many of the great drivers having raced there,” Klien admitted. “Watching Grands Prix when I was growing up inspired me to become a racing car driver and I was fortunate enough to race at the absolute highest level.
“I am very much looking forward to racing this Erebus Motorsport SLS AMG GT3 in Adelaide. I tested it just before the 12 Hour and it is a beautiful Customer Sports car that AMG has built. It was the first chance I have had to drive a full GT3 car and to do this in the race will be very exciting.”
With a grid that matches the 2012 field at Clipsal, Category Manager Ken Collier is buoyed by continuing interest in the series.
“Given the ongoing state of the economy and the number of entries dropping across almost every field in the country, we’re happy to have maintained station from where we were last year,” he said. “It’s an ever changing dynamic, especially after such an intensive event as Bathurst where inevitably you’re going to lose cars - that’s the nature of events like that - but the level of enquiry continues, with more people enquiring every week about gaining entry into the series.
“We just have to stay the course and keep building, because there’s plenty of interest out there, and plenty of eligible cars already in the country.”
Whilst reigning champion, opening round winner and current points leader Klark Quinn has opened his 2013 account in the best way possible, the dual race winner from Clipsal 2012 is under no illusions a repeat performance is going to be on the cards..
“It was a tough battle last year with the Mercs, and with Craig in the car this year, I can’t see how that’s going to be any different,” he admitted. “To be honest I thought we were going to have a tough time of it last year, and with some of the dramas on circuit - which we fortunately avoided - we came away with two wins, so you just never know.”
Aside from the series hot-shots, South Australia always provides additional entries come Clipsal time, with a number of local sportscar regulars ensuring they’re on the grid.
Kevin Weeks is always a welcome addition, but whilst he battled his gorgeous Ford GT last year with mixed results, for 2013 he’s returning to his Supaloc Lamborghini which ran strongly in the 2012 event in the hands of team-mate Adam Taplin.
Taplin though joins the ‘prancing horse’ brigade for 2013 having acquired a drive in a current spec Ferrari 458 Italia GT3, a car which won a number of races last season. The part-time GT competitor had a solid top six result at Clipsal last year, and is hoping to be a step closer to the podium this season, giving local fans plenty to scream about.
And whilst fellow locals John Goodacre, Brenton Griguol, Keith and Kiang Kuan Wong and Michael Almond will all be in the mix, five-time Clipsal GT competitor Jordan Ormsby will be hoping his love affair with the streets of his home town will continue.
“We were pretty lucky last year taking second in race one and just missing the podium [fourth] in race two,” he admitted. “But that’s the nature of Clipsal. We had a newer model car last year, and we knew we were good for a top ten, but at this event anything can happen, from the weather to the fatigue, to racing accidents, you just have to bide your time and keep out of trouble.
“We’re in a similar position this year again, so who knows..!”
Fellow Porsche pilot John Goodacre too is itching to get back on a circuit he hasn’t raced on for almost ten years. “It was a six-cylinder VN Commodore Saloon Car back then,” he laughed. “Things will be different this year. I’m actually really looking forward to punting the Porsche around there, I think it will be great. I’m also interested to see what turn eight is like too, because a lot has changed since I was last there, and it will all be coming up a lot faster..!”
Opening practice for the second round of the Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli begins on Thursday, February 28 at 11:20am, with qualifying at 5:15pm on that afternoon. Race one (one hour) will get underway at 5:30pm on Saturday, March 2, with race two (30-minutes) at 9:45am on Sunday, March 3.
PaddockTalk Perspective
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