V8 Supercar: Paul Morris To Help Ashley Cooper Foundation
May 14, 2008
Nathan Wong
V8 Supercar driver Paul Morris will support the Ashley Cooper Foundation and Transplant Australia this weekend at Adelaide’s Mallala Motorsport Park, in Round Three of the Shannons Nationals.
After young race driver Ashley Cooper tragically lost his life at the Clipsal 500 in February, the Cooper family’s decision to donate his organs helped save the lives of seven seriously-ill people.
To help raise awareness for the Ashley Cooper Foundation - established to help support Ashley’s young family - and Transplant Australia, Morris’ HQ will carry prominent signage for the two entities.
Morris will also sell the popular ‘Dangerous Dirty Dude’ t-shirts over the weekend with proceeds going to the Ashley Cooper Foundation, and give away a drive-day at his V8 Super School on the Gold Coast.
“Ashley’s accident was a terrible tragedy felt by everyone in Australian motorsport,” Morris said.
“However the way the motorsport community has banded together to support the Cooper family and donate to the Ashley Cooper Foundation has been great, and hopefully this weekend we can add to that.”
‘The Dude’ is one of the most-colourful characters in Australian motorsport and one of the most-versatile; having dabbled in Production Cars, Aussie Racing Cars and even drifting in recent years.
After accepting an invitation to compete in Round One of the HQ National Series at the Bathurst Motor Festival in February, Morris won the event and currently leads the series points.
“I just love racing,” the Gold Coast resident said.
“I’d never raced an HQ before and when Bobby McGee offered me the chance to get behind the wheel at Bathurst I jumped at it.
“The weekend was a lot of fun, so I’m looking forward to getting back out there at Mallala.”
A field of 34 HQ Holdens are entered for the weekend, which includes the series’ marquee race for the year - a one-hour night race scheduled to kick off at 6:45pm on Saturday.
In addition to the rough-and-tumble HQs, Mallala will also host the Tankworld Australian Supertruck Nationals, Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship and Kerrick Sports Sedans this weekend.
Making their debut will be two new categories in Australian motorsport; the Shannons V8 Touring Car Series (for ex-V8 Supercars) and the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge.
An eight-car Drift Battle has also been organised, and will feature some of South Australia’s best drifters, including current Toyo Tires Drift Australia Series leader Leighton Fine.
