While Nash Morris is dealing with back pain that prevented him from starting Saturday’s Boost Mobile Super Trucks season opener at Symmons Plains Raceway, he will be calling upon a familiar face to fill in for Sunday’s two races. Russell Ingall will serve as his backup driver, returning the race grid to its original count of six.
“Next stop Tasmania,” Ingall posted on Instagram later that night with a photo of him in a plane. “Got the air filter on and ready to roll @stadiumsupertrucks @boostaus @norwellmotorplex”.
In an Instagram story shared by Morris’s father Paul, the duo picked up Ingall at the airport shortly after. The younger Morris asked his dad, “Uncle Russ is replacing me?”, to which Ingall quipped he was going to be “Russell Hülkenberg” in reference to Formula One driver Nico Hülkenberg‘s substitute roles in 2020.
Ingall is close with the Morris family as he and Paul host the Enforcer and The Dude web series, and he also raced for Paul Morris Motorsport in the Supercars Championship from 2008 to 2011. His participation was teased at various times throughout Foxtel’s broadcast of Race #1.
The 2005 Supercars champion made his SST début at Sydney Motorsport Park in 2018, where he finished seventh and fifth. When SST returned to Australia for the 2019 season finale at Gold Coast, Ingall recorded fifth- and sixth-place finishes.
Nash, who had hoped to run his maiden SST weekend in Tasmania, was the fourth-fastest of six in Saturday practice but exacerbated a back muscle that he pulled weeks prior, forcing him out of the #94 for qualifying. Paul took over his truck for the session, during which he noted the vehicle had problems that likely resulted in the injury worsening; he went on to win the opening race in his son’s truck (though renumbered to his usual #67).
Two races are scheduled on Sunday.
