Double American Le Mans Series champion David Brabham will line up for his third V8 Supercars race this weekend as part of a stellar line up of international drivers joining the series for the Gold Coast 600 event at Surfers' Paradise.
Brabham, who has spent recent years racing in the ALMS with Highcroft Racing will join series regular Alex Davison in the Stone Brothers Racing entered Ford Falcon for the event taking place at a venue that has previously hosted Indycar and Champ Car open wheel events – though the track is significantly different this year.
With just one practice session – at Queensland Raceway – to get used to the Irwin Tools liveried car Brabham was eighth fastest of the visiting drivers on a wet track.
Multiple WTCC champion Andy Priaulx was fastest in the Holden he will share with V8 demi-god Craig Lowndes, but the race will see names such as recognised tin-top drivers Gianni Morbidelli, Fabrizio Giovanardi and Alain Menu take on open wheel specialists like back-to-back Indycar champion Dario Franchitti, Helio Castroneves, Will Power and F1 reject Sebastien Bourdais among 18 international drivers.
They will now be unleashed onto the concrete lined Surfers' Paradise track, with Brabham understandably concerned; “hopefully there’s not a lot of carnage,” he said.
“With all of those guys out there trying to fight for top position, it’s going to be interesting.”
“These cars are not the easiest cars to drive at speed,” he explains. “You’ve got to be in them a long time to really get the best out of them.”
“We’ve got a very short period of time at Surfers Paradise. Everyone will be out there pushing, learning as much as they can leading up to the races, starting the race. Going through the whole format is going to be so new to them … anything can happen!”
The first chance the international drivers will have to sample the track will come on Friday's practice sessions.
