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The four wheel drive set could be in for some serious surprises at the WPS Bathurst 12 Hour on February 22, with Jake Camilleri teaming up once again with Scott Nicholas in the Grand Prix Mazda supported Mazda 3 MPS, with the duo primed for a top ten result.
Not content with mere class honours, and with a year of development work undertaken on the car, the team is full of confidence heading to Mount Panorama for the biggest event of the year.
Recently voted the best driver in the 2008 Production Car Championship, team leader Camilleri is prepared for the event.
“Last year heading into the Bathurst 12 Hour we had only done five laps in the car at Queensland Raceway, so that was an unknown, and I had also only ever raced HQ Holdens around the mountain,” said Camilleri.
“Last year in qualifying we were about 10 seconds off the ultimate pace of the top contenders, but as the season went on we managed to get that gap down to about one second, so it was a massive improvement.
“With the experience we now have around Bathurst, and the knowledge we have of the car, we are really excited and pumped for a top ten outright result.”
Camilleri proved to be the revelation of the 2008 season, demonstrating his skills especially in the wet, often out pacing the supposedly quicker four wheel drive equipment, taking wins and regular outright podium places.
For the 2008 event, Queenslanders Camilleri and Nicholas teamed up with Tim Sipp, but the evenly matched pair will be looking to some long stints behind the wheel, in a rarity for the event where most crews consist of three drivers.
Nicholas is also no stranger to the WPS Bathurst 12 Hour, having previously run strongly at the head of the field aboard a Subaru in the 2007 event.
Apart from production car racing cameos, Nicholas has been a front runner in the hard fought national Saloon Car class, with many top results to his credit.
Mazda has previously won four consecutive 12 Hour production car races at Bathurst and Eastern Creek with various RX7 models, driven by such luminaries as Alan Jones, Dick Johnson, John Bowe, Neil Crompton, Gregg Hansford, Charlie O’Brien and Gary Waldon.
Two full days of practice and qualifying precede the WPS Bathurst 12 Hour, which will be hotly contested with the strongest production car field seen in many years.
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