MEDIA RELEASE- For Immediate Release, May 7 2006

PODIUM FINISHES GET RUSSELL’S SEASON BACK ON TRACK

A podium finish in each race of Round 3 of the Shannons Australian Production Car Championship at Oran Park Raceway has helped Newcastle teenager Drew Russell get his season back on track.

Russell entered the round eager to score some solid results, after a weekend to forget last time out in Tasmania. A broken differential ended his weekend early, and cost Russell the lead in both the Class A and Outright Championship standings, earnt after winning the opening round at Wakefield Park.

The differential was repaired and Russell got the Go Karts Go Honda S2000 back on track at the Western Sydney circuit. He qualified second fastest, and finished third in the opening scratch race, behind a pair of the higher horsepower Class A rivals.

Russell, 17, backed it up in the two reverse-class handicap races on Sunday. He drove well in each, picking his way through the field to finish both races in second place.

It earnt Russell second place on the Class A and Outright podium for the weekend, and secured a bag of points towards his championship points tally.

“We pushed with everything that we had this weekend,” said Russell after the final race.

“I was driving as hard as I could and the car was perfect, but we just couldn’t get near the pace of Ryan’s Falcon and Briffa’s Commodore during the races.

“It would’ve been nice to score a win, but after the problems we had in Tasmania, it’s good to finish the races and score a decent amount of points.”

With Global Racing Industries team owner Wayne Russell unable to attend the round due to business commitments, renowned Production Car racing experts Protecnica Racing were enlisted to run the car for the weekend.

“I’d like to thank Scott and the guys from Protecnica Racing for helping us out this weekend,” said Drew Russell.

“It was good to be able to work with them. They have had a lot of experience, knowledge and success with these types of cars, so they obviously did a great job for us.”

Protecnica Racing team owner Scott Anderson was full of praise for Russell.

“Drew drove very well all weekend,” said Anderson. “It doesn’t matter who you could’ve put in the car, it went as quick as it was ever going to this weekend.

“It is the first time I’ve worked with Drew and I was very impressed. He has been awesome to work with. He has a great knowledge of the car and the type of racing and his driving is of a very high quality.

“Everything we asked him to do, he has done it. The car wasn’t the fastest one out there, but he drove the wheels off it all weekend and brought it home in each race.”

With the podium finishes at Oran Park, Russell moves from fifth up to third place in the Outright standings, and from fourth to third in the Class A leaderboard.

Round 4 of the 2006 Shannons Australian Production Car Championship will be held at Eastern Creek Raceway on July 8-9.

Global Racing Industries thanks the support of Go-Karts Go, Hontoys, Protecnica Racing, Oran Park Raceway, Kloster Honda, Koala Glass and Bells Radiators.

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Media Resources (click for high-res, please credit 'Global Racing Industries') ::

Bouncing back from misfortune in Tasmania which cost him the Championship lead, Newcastle racer Drew Russell finished on the podium in each race of the Shannons Australian Production Car Championship at Oran Park Raceway.
Podium finishes at Oran Park Raceway helps Drew Russell begin his climb back up the order of the Shannons Australian Production Car Championship standings.

Additional high resolution photos for media use and other resouces can be found at www.tokencameo.com/resources/global/