George Slick Miedecke will make a return to the 2012 Auto One V8 Ute Racing Seriesprotected by Armor All when he takes the reins of the Auto One Wildcard Ute at the Armor All Gold Coast 600 1921 October.
The New South Welshman raced in the V8 Ute Series from 20072009, before he moved to the United States to pursue a career as a NASCAR driver for Marcos Ambrose Motorsport. Miedecke claimed various podiums in later model stock cars driving for Ambrose, and at the end of 2011 returned home to drive for Sonic Motorsport in the V8 Supercar Development Series.
When the opportunity to race the Auto One Wildcard V8 Ute came to light, Miedecke welcomed it with open arms.
It will be great to be back in a V8 Ute. Its such a fantastic series and I really enjoyed my time racing in it. We tested the Wildcard Ute at Wakefield Park this week, and its quite humbling to share the race seat with drivers such as Tony Longhurst, said Miedecke. The car felt good. We were putting in some pretty good lap times and Im feeling pretty confident heading to the Gold Coast next week, he said.
Miedecke left the V8 Ute Series at the end of 2009, winning the final round at Homebush, taking pole position at Bathurst and breaking the Mt Panorama V8 Ute lap record.
The Utes were definitely a big part of the start of my career. It was a great place to start, lots of close racing and the cars were definitely a challenge compared to some others that Ive driven. It was a shame that my Bathurst lap record was finally broken last weekend, he said with a grin, but it shows that the Series is improving, Ill just have to get out there and set one at the Gold Coast.
Although he has only raced around the Surfers Paradise circuit once before, he claimed third overall for the Gold Coast round back in 2007, and hed love to mirror that result.
It would definitely be great to be on the podium again at the Gold Coast. Im just going to take each race as it comes and hope to give Auto One a great result at the end of the day, said Miedecke.
Miedeckes father and Touring car legend Andrew, was the driver standards advisor in the V8 Utes and has enjoyed watching his son move through the ranks, however hes also excited to see him back in the Utes.
Slick has also recently picked up a drive alongside reigning V8 Ute Champion Chris Pither in the New Zealand Super Tourers and is testing there today.
Gold Coaster Ryal Harris now leads the ENZED Drivers Championship in the Roylances/Rexel Ford by 13 points from Monster Energy driver Nathan Pretty.
The V8 Utes will hit the Surfers Paradise street circuit for the first time on Friday, 19th October for practice. See below full schedule for the weekend.
Friday, 19th October 8:20am PracticeFriday, 19th October 1pm QualifyingSaturday, 20th October 8:25am Race 1Sunday, 21st October 8:45am Race 2Sunday, 21st October 12:30pm Race 3
