- Best of the Best Celebrity Challengers return for more BMW track action.
- 28 drivers, 28 BMW 1 Series cars chase glory on race weekend.
- James Tomkins to defend 2004 victory, Kieren Perkins, Paul Mercurio, Jo
Bailey confirmed to drive.
BMW will celebrate the 10th running of the FORMULA 1
Foster’s Australian
Grand Prix in Melbourne by inviting the Best of the Best Celebrity Challenge
competitors back to the cockpit for a second taste of track action in March
2005.
The drivers will take the wheel of the latest addition to the BMW range, the
all-new dynamic BMW 1 Series.
Confirmed drivers include 2004 Celebrity Challenge winner and Olympic Gold
Medallist, Oarsome Foursome rower James Tomkins, Olympic Gold Medallist swimmer
Kieren Perkins, Actor Paul Mercurio and TV personality Jo Bailey. Given the
Celebrity Challenge’s high-profile, BMW is confident previous podium finishers
will be itching for another chance to strut their skills in front of a huge
crowd at the circuit and a massive television audience. One Australian superstar
not driving a BMW 1 Series in the Celebrity Challenge is Mark Webber. He will
watch the race from the pits prior to making his debut for the BMW-WilliamsF1
Team in the main race, the Formula One Grand Prix, hoping for a podium placing
for the first time.
The new BMW 1 Series is the ideal track star, using a powerful four-cylinder
longitudinally-mounted engine driving the rear wheels through a six-speed manual
gearbox. It races to 100 km/h from the green light in just 8.7 seconds and has a
top speed of 217 km/h. Almost perfect weight distribution front to rear delivers
stable, predictable handling and crisp, precise steering response, as genuine a
race car experience as anyone could find.
BMW will field the 1 Series cars in almost standard trim, adding only the
requisite safety items such as a full FIA approved roll cage, Monaco racing
seat, Willans six-point race harness, AP Racing clutch, Ferodo DS2500
competition brake pads, Pirelli PZero Rosso sport compound tyres and a sports
exhaust. The event will mark the international motorsport debut for the BMW 1
Series. The BMW Celebrity Challenge is always a focal point of the Grand Prix
weekend, and has delivered some spectacularly nail-biting thrills (and
heart-in-mouth spills) in the past. Each competitor will spend a week at BMW
Driver Training honing their track skills and absorbing handy high-speed car
control tips. The chief instructor of BMW Driver Training, Bathurst and Le Mans
winner Geoff Brabham will once again lead a team of experienced and
race-hardened instructors. In the past, some Celebrities have been overcome by
the occasion when the race actually gets underway, but by limiting the field to
previous finishers, the 2005 Celebrity Challenge is set to see a tight race all
the way to the flag. This will be the 8th running of the Australian Grand Prix
Celebrity Challenge using BMW Group Australia supplied vehicles. BMW entered a
field of E30 318is sedans in 1990 following up with the then new E36 3 Series
sedan in 1991 in Adelaide.
For Melbourne, BMW provided a fleet of six-cylinder Z3 Roadsters in 1999,
2000 and 2001 before giving the MINI Cooper its international motorsport debut
in 2002. The MINI Coopers returned in 2003 before BMW switched to the rear-wheel
drive 318ti Compact in 2004.
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