After a high-speed incident at Sandown Raceway a few weeks ago, 17 year old Mason Barbera has been given the all clear and will return to the field of the 2015 East Coast Bullbars Australian V8 Ute Racing Series to compete in Round 6 at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, Mount Panorama 9 – 12 September.
Barbera, who will be the youngest V8 Ute Driver to ever compete at Bathurst, he tested this morning at QLD Raceway in his re-built Peters Motorsport Ford and is confident to hit Mount Panorama.
“I feel excellent, ready to go, no pain or anything, I’m really happy and the car was awesome, it was really quick and it was great being in essentially a new car. We matched times from the old car, if not better so we are ready to rumble for Bathurst and happy all round,” explained Barbera.
Aaron Borg will join Barbera in the line-up for Bathurst; Borg will drive for Andrew Fisher in the Jesus Racing Ford, who will step out for this round to concentrate on Touring Car Masters.
“We’ve been working with Aaron for a couple of years now and as a team we’ve been working on the Ute to get more speed. After the good result at Sandown, I thought it was a good time to step out and give him the opportunity to drive at Bathurst and I can also concentrate on the XY (Ford Falcon XY GTHO),” said Fisher.
Borg (Nicknamed “The Disciple”) debuted at Darwin last year, posting an impressive 12th overall for his first outing. The Sydney based rookie was diagnosed with a heart condition (sub-aortic stenosis) at a young age, and was motivated to get well by his parents with the promise of a Go Kart drive when he was better. He started walking again and drove in his first competition at age 10 and raced in various state titles from age 16 and is looking forward to fulfilling another childhood dream of racing at Bathurst.
“I’m really excited to get back into it, especially being Bathurst. It’s somewhere you always want to race at, Andrew has been a massive help and we have already looked over data and video together. Having Andrew’s knowledge is second to none, he’s done plenty of laps around Bathurst so it will be very helpful debriefing throughout the weekend,” said Borg.
Also new to the Series next weekend is Endurance Driver, Danny Stutterd who will step in for Charlie “Handlebars” Kovacs, Kovacs is unable to make the trip due to work commitments, while Townsville racer Graham Edwards will also be back in the saddle after posting 14th overall at his local round in July, he will steer the Sieders Racing Ford.
New Zealander Peter Ward will make a return from Townsville, Ward last raced at Bathurst in the Trans -Tasman Challenge in 2012, winning the New Zealand component.
See below V8 Ute Schedule for the Bathurst weekend: Thursday, 8th October Practice 1 8:45am Thursday, 8th October Practice 2 2:45pm Friday, 9th October Qualifying 10:10am Saturday, 10th October Race 1 8:40am Saturday, 10th October Race 2 3:55pm Sunday, 11th October Race 3 8:55am
All sessions will be televised Live on Fox Sports with Race 2 and 3 also televised live through Network Ten.
