Photo: Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing

Giovanardi and Menu looking forward to Surfers

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Former BTCC champions Fabrizio Giovanardi and Alain Menu will drive for Brad Jones Racing and Britek at the upcoming Gold Coast 600 on October 24th, and both are looking forward to racing on the challenging street circuit.

There is much fear that the international competitors, not used to racing powerful rear wheel drive machines such as those of the V8 Supercars series particularly around a tight street circuit such as that at Surfers Paradise, are all set to crash out and damage their co-drivers championship positions – but Giovanardi & Menu, both with prior experience in the series, are hoping to surprise.

“I’m really looking forward to drive in this race,” said Giovanardi, who last raced in the championship in 2008 for the Australian arm of Triple Eight Race Engineering.

“Making Bathurst was a fantastic experience so to come again in Australia is a dream; I immediately accepted the offer made by Brad Jones Racing.

“I’ve done two races there now; I understand how difficult the car is to drive. I will try to avoid to make damage. At Bathurst I had a crash in qualifying and it was quite hard. I have to re-learn the car slowly; I want to try to start slow.

“All the time you race on street tracks there are difficulties coming like the circuit is not clean and you can’t drive the car so fast on Saturday as Sunday. You need to keep your driving clean and find the balance. I’ve always been quite confident in city circuits so I believe I will be quite good.”

Alain Menu, who raced at Bathurst in 2004-2005 with Ford Performance Racing and Larkham Motorsport, is also relishing the challenge.

“A lot of drivers all over the world want to come and be part of the V8s. I think it’s basically because it’s a very good championship you have got. It’s very competitive, the drivers are top drivers and the teams are extremely professional. The cars are difficult to drive and it’s a very nice challenge especially for drivers like Fabrizio and myself coming from front-wheel-drive, two-litre cars! As a racing driver I think we all like a challenge.”

Menu will be taking a short break from his WTCC duties at Australia, before heading off for the penultimate round of the WTCC in Japan a week later.