Stichbury in for Neal at Big Kev
1/10/2001 23:05 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Paul Morris has called little-known Kiwi Ashely Stichbury off the bench for the biggest race of the year following Briton Matt Neal’s shock Bathurst withdrawal last week.
Stichbury, a TransAm competitor in New Zealand, has tested the Big Kev Commodore this year with the intention of entering next year’s Konica Series.
He’ll race Morris’ VS Commodore in the 30-lap Konica race at Mt. Panorama on Saturday, but will now drive in Sunday’s marathon as well with Morris.
Matt Neal was informed by his Nissan BTCC team last week that he would not be released for Bathurst due to the uncertainty with air travel following the American terrorist attacks. He’ll now race in Belgium this weekend.
“We were looking forward to racing with Matt at Bathurst, but unfortunately that won’t be the case,” Morris said.
“Ashley tested with us at through the year with the idea of us running him in the Konica V8 Supercar Series next season.
“We tested him again last Thursday when these problems arose with Matt and his times at Queensland Raceway were very impressive. In fact, his times compared with the winners of the Queensland 500 last month.”
Stichbury has one Bathurst start to his name, partnering Mark McLaughlin in an EF Falcon in 1998.
“I guess this is the ultimate case of being in the right place at the right time,” Stichbury said.
“I have to thank Paul and the Big Kev team for the opportunity. Hopefully this will be the break in my career I have been waiting for.
“I just want to keep the car straight and produce consistent lap times in an effort to get Paul as many championship points as possible.”
Morris and Stichbury will run the team’s Calder-winning VT Commodore at Bathurst, after the new VX model, all but destroyed at Oran Park at the hands of Matt Neal, couldn’t be completed in time.
“We have got the new car back together, but there are some systems on it we are not confident of running for 1000km at Bathurst,” Morris said.
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