The highly rated and super fast Peter Hackett (Team Lamborghini) is back for the first round of 2007 Australian GT Championship to be held at Sydney’s Eastern Creek circuit this week end (February 2-4).
Hackett, who already has two Australian motor sport Championship titles (2001 Formula 3 Champion and 2005 Formula 4000 Champion), is anxious to add the GT Championship trophy to his collection after it eluded him at the final round of the 2005 season.
Melbourne based Hackett will begin the GT Championship season at the A1 GP event behind the wheel of the Diablo GTR. However, it may be a ‘one off’ drive in 2007 with the car to be replaced by a new Lamborghini Gallardo that will hopefully arrive in time for round two at the famous Clipsal 500 Adelaide street race.
Also joining the fray for the first round of the GT title chase is Allan Simonsen (Ferrari 360GT) fresh from his victory in the Lake Mountain Tango tarmac rally event.
Simonsen is one of two drivers to have scored dual round wins in last year’s GT Championship, the other being South Australia’s Bryce Washington who will again drive the ADRAD Porsche GT3 Cup Car at the beginning of the season.
Washington took the GT title in 2005 and was runner-up to Greg Crick last year who is a non starter for the first round this year as a result of business commitments and parts for his new car not arriving in time.
In addition to Simonsen’s car, the Ferrari presence will be strong at the fast Eastern Creek layout with Kevin Miller, David Stevens, and John Teulan all driving (Ferrari 430 models.
An exciting new car to the grid is the recently imported Lotus Cadena to be driven by NSW entrant Angelo Lazaris. The Cadena is the Lotus model that will be run in the FIA GT3 Championship, while the famous English marque will also be represented at Eastern Creek by Justin Levis (Lotus Exige) and Peter Lucas (Lotus Elise).
A race winner last year, Sven Burchartz (Porsche GT3) is predicted to be at the top of the pack and is being joined by a debut driver for the Sonic team Jon Trende (Porsche GT3 Cup Car).
The winner of last year’s GT Championship round 8 at Eastern Creek David Wall (Porsche GT3 RSR) will start this week end’s event with plenty of confidence, while John Kaias (Porsche GT3 Cup Car) returns to the Championship after spending last season in Carrera Cup.
| 
|