Price: First Lady of Hot Wheels challenge
7/3/2000 23:15 (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 Motorsport, 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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