Gold Coast racing driver, Matt Brabham has relished his rare chance to get behind the wheel of the Preston Hire Racing Supercar in the co-driver practice at Winton Raceway, finishing 11th in today’s session.
There are only two planned co-driver sessions for the year before the Supercars Championship’s PIRTEK Enduro Cup kicks off, where Brabham shares the Preston Hire Racing Holden Commodore with Lee Holdsworth.
Brabham is taking every chance he can to get behind the wheel of a Supercar this year to prepare for the three-round PIRTEK Enduro Cup.
The weather presented some tricky conditions, however Brabham was able to have some fun on the wet track.
Holdsworth this weekend celebrates 400 race starts and offers a wealth of Supercars experience to arm Brabham with as they go into the PIRTEK Enduro Cup.
The Enduro Cup campaign will kick off at Sandown Raceway on September 14-16, followed by the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 in October (4-7).
Brabham had his first taste of the mountain in February, where he won his class in the Bathurst 12 Hour in The Boat Works racing team BMW with fellow third-generation racing driver Aaron Seton and Tony Longhurst.
The PIRTEK Enduro Cup finishes in Brabham’s hometown in Queensland for the Vodafone Gold Coast 600 (October 19-12).
Brabham will have another test day with Preston Hire Racing this week before the second Supercars co-driver session at Queensland Raceway (20-22 July).
The Preston Hire ambassador also leads the Speed Energy Stadium SUPER Truck championship by 53 points after winning the last three consecutive rounds in Perth WA, Long Beach USA and Adelaide SA.
Brabham will return to the US on Wednesday where he will be involved in a series of corporate events at the 102nd Indianapolis 500, having raced in the 100th running of the event.
Next on the schedule for the Stadium SUPER Trucks series is in Detroit, USA as an undercard for the IndyCar ‘Dual in Detroit’ races (June 1-3).
Brabham’s 2018 campaigns are supported by the Preston Group, DeVilbiss, Gale Pacific, Coolaroo, The Boat Works, PIRTEK and the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation, of which he is a proud ambassador.
WHAT MATT HAS TO SAY…
“It was awesome to get back in a V8 and get a few decent laps in. It’s tough for co-drivers to get the time we need in the car,” said Brabham.
“It was a great opportunity to be out there in the wet, you never know what can happen in the Enduro Cup. We could show up at Sandown and it might be wet race, it was awesome to get that experience in the car.
“It’s always fun in the wet and the car handled quite well, there was a lot more grip then I thought there would be.
“The goal for the session was able to keep the car clean and hand it back over to Lee, for the rest of the weekend.”