Price: First Lady of Hot Wheels challenge
7/3/2000 23:04 (Jason Whittaker) - It will be a rare case of the girl leading the boys when the V8 Supercars
take to the track at the 2000 Qantas Australian Grand Prix on March 9-12. In a first for motor sport, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation and Hot
Wheels announced today that Melinda Price - one of Australia's leading
female racing drivers - will be behind the wheel in the Hot Wheels Car.
Melinda will drive a lap ahead of 30 roaring V8 racing cars heralding the
start of each of the three Hot Wheels V8 Supercar Showdown races - on
Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the Grand Prix.
Melinda has made quite a name for herself in Australian motor racing,
competing in an array of categories - including V8 Supercars, primarily in
the annual endurance races.
Most recently she has raced a Holden Vectra in the GTP category, as
teammate to Australian football great turned media superstar Sam Newman.
Courtesy of the new wildcard system for the Hot Wheels V8 Supercar
Showdown, Newman will be making his V8 Supercar debut at the Grand Prix -
with Hot Wheels as his major sponsor.
Melinda has never raced at the Grand Prix and said that, at 28, driving the
Hot Wheels Car - a Holden VT Commodore with a stunning flame-inspired
livery - at the front of the V8 Supercar pack would be "absolutely one of
the highlights of my career".
"I was part of the Castrol Cougars (women's V8 Supercar squad) a couple of
years ago but the girls in the team used to race on a rotational basis and
when the Grand Prix came around it was Kerryn Brewer's turn," Price said.
"I can't wait to get out on the Albert Park track, which is not only a
great circuit but in a fabulous setting."
"I'm really looking forward to doing my first lap. I'll go as fast as I can - I don't know yet whether there will be any instructions on how fast I can
go."
"Sam might be in the races, but at least when I'm on the track just for one
lap leading the V8 Supercars around I'll be at the front - somewhere I know
he'll never be!"
"The irony of Sam actually being in the Showdown is that he's never beaten
me!" Price said.
Apart from her achievements in motor sport, Melinda has a Bachelor of
Science and an Honours Degree in Immunology. She also was a semi-finalist
in the 1997 Young Australian of the Year Awards.
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