MEDIA RELEASE- For Immediate Release, May 28 2006

PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF FOR RUSSELL IN PERFORMANCE CAR DEBUT

Drew Russell’s debut in the STS Turbo Australian Performance Car Championship was plagued with problems, but the Newcastle youngster emerged from the weekend with a class win at Wakefield Park.

Running in the Ferntree Gully Holden Privateers Cup, Russell’s weekend was bound to be a learning experience, with the 18 year-old getting behind the wheel of the Go Karts Go Mazda RX7 for the first time in Friday’s first practice session.

He didn’t turn a lap in the opening practice session, thanks to a fuel leak, while engine problems limited his total running time Practice 2 and qualifying to a dozen, slow, laps.

With this behind him and no solution to the engine problems despite countless efforts, Russell took to the grid in Race 1. After an early problem to his class rival, Russell took the class lead and completed the 24 lap distance to score the class win.

“It was a messy win, but it’s a win,” he said. “Unfortunately due to the tight timeframe between getting the car and running here we couldn’t test and sort out these problems beforehand.

“The engine doesn’t have any power, it’s coughing and misfiring all around the track. It’s a bit strange as the engine was running fine on the dyno, but out on the track it was having these problems.

“In the race, it was really just a matter of sticking it in fourth gear and driving around. The team were on the radio keeping me informed of where the other drivers were, so I didn’t get in the way of anybody.”

After Race 1, the Global Racing Industries crew continued to chase the source of the problem, working well into Saturday night. Among the work, electronics were changed, and new engine plugs were sourced and installed.

It paid off in Sunday’s second and final race. The Go Karts Mazda RX7 took the class lead early and got down to the task of driving the car without any limitations for the first time. He put in consistent laptimes, including a best lap of 1:09.3565.

Despite the engine problems returning, Russell held on and took another class race win, and the Privateers Cup round win.

“We won the race, won the round, so we can’t ask for more,” he said. “In the end we were a bit fortunate with problems for other competitors, but you take it as it comes.

“Everything we changed made the car better for Race 2. We got 14 laps out of it, before it started missing again.

“It was my first real chance to drive the car, so I was learning a little bit more about the car every lap. I was trying different gears through the corners on different laps to try and find the best gear to use, because we just hadn’t been able to do that with the problems and lack of track time.

“All in all, it was a problematic weekend, but a successful weekend.”

The next round of the STS Turbo Australian Performance Car Championship will be at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway on July 8/9.

“I’d like to thank Peter Floyd for supplying us with the car, and also Dad, Ric Shaw and Lachlan for helping us get the car ready in five days so we could get here.

“We have some time between now and Eastern Creek so we’ll get stuck into the car between now and then, sort out the problems, do a bit of testing and have a strong weekend there.”

Global Racing Industries thanks the support of Go Karts Go, Ric Shaw Performance, Oran Park Raceway, The Kloster Group, Koala Glass and Bells Radiators.

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Drew Russell’s debut in the STS Turbo Australian Performance Car Championship was plagued with problems, but the Newcastle youngster emerged from the weekend with a class win.
Newcastle's Drew Russell slots into second place in the Ferntree Gully Holden Privateers Cup after his debut in the STS Turbo Australian Performance Car Championship at Wakefield Park.

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