Volante Rosso Motorsport continues its awesome April this weekend with the second round of Supersport NSW with two familiar faces – Peter Clare and Greg Kenny – and the debut race of 16-year-old rookie, Alex Gardner, in its trio of Radical SR3s.
It represents a debut race in Sydney for Brisbanite Gardner – who recently signed as a Penrite Oil ambassador. He had a long junior karting career and has raced in the competitive Hyundai Excel Series in Queensland. He capped off last year making the top six from 38 at the Ferrari Driver Academy Selection Program in Malaysia. After a handful of test sessions in a Radical SR3 under the tutelage of Volante Rosso Motorsport co-team principal, Josh Hunt, he’s raring to go.
Peter Clare has been racing in a Radical SR3 since 2016 in various series and took third in the 2019 Supersports NSW Championship. He made his racing debut after recovering from open heart surgery and continues a highly successful business advisory and investment body, sitting on a number of boards.
Ironically, it was Greg Kenny that got Clare into the sport, which is used as a competitive outlet for both of them.
Kenny is looking to continue the internal competition with Clare and with a refreshed engine on board is hoping for a good start to his season after a few months out of the saddle. Kenny was third in the 2018 Supersport NSW Championship.
All three are working towards the Radical Australia Cup that starts in June.
16-year-old Garder quoted that this weekend is exciting for him and the team to be making his debut.
“It will be my first time at Sydney Motorsport Park and my first race in this car,” said Alex Gardner. “I’ve done some test sessions and driver coaching with Josh Hunt which has me in good stead to make my debut in this category and with the Radical SR3. I’m really looking forward to working with Volante Rosso Motorsport and getting to know the car.”
Peter Clare is raring to get back behind the wheel after what he declared a “reasonable” last season:
“It’s my passion to get racing with a busy family and corporate life and I had a reasonable year last year” said Peter Clare. “It gives me a single focus and strangely enough, it is relaxing! It’s great to be back with Volante Rosso Motorsport again and racing alongside Greg. Ironically, it was Greg that got me into this – after knowing each other professionally, we were going to share a car back then, but I had too much fun and bought my own! While I’m competitive – the greatest competitiveness is between Greg and I!”
Greg Kenny taking it as it comes, but wants to be competitive – especially against Clare:
“After a few months away from the track, I’m really looking forward to being back in the car,” said Greg Kenny. “We’ve got the engine back in the car and ready go, obviously I’m aiming to be competitive, but you take it as it comes. Peter and I have a great ‘friendly’ rivalry and of course, the first person you want to beat is your team-mate. He’s finished in front of me a few times more than I’ve beat him, so I want to try and reverse that count! Having Alex with the team brings some young blood to it, which is always good to watch how these young guys progress.”
Supersport NSW will race at Sydney Motorsport Park on Saturday only and will feature qualifying at 8:30am, the first of two 17 minute races will be at 12pm with the second being around 90 minutes after and the final 21 minute final race to wrap up the day around 70 minutes after that.
It’s the second weekend in succession for the Volante Rosso Motorsport team, whose Mercedes-AMG GT3 raced at Bathurst last weekend in the first round of Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS. To complete the month, the team will compete in the second round of that Championship in Perth, April 28-30.
Alex Gardner Racing is supported by Next Level Racing, Todd Gerhardt Realty, Bob Jane T-Marts Capalaba, Foundations Performance, Mr Men Barbers, Motiv8 Training and Elite Mind Institute.
Shared Runway Racing (Peter Clare) is supported by Shared Runway, Lynch Group, Total Synergy, Silver Chef and it proudly supports the Heritage Charitable Foundation.
Greg Kenny is supported by Blue Gate Property Pty Ltd.
FURTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION:
www.volanterosso.com.au
Facebook: Volante Rosso
Instagram: @volante_rosso
