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Three times Australian Superbike Champion Shawn Giles will forsake two wheels
for four when he lines up in this year’s BMW Celebrity Challenge as part of the
2006 FORMULA 1
TM
Foster’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
The champion ‘racer’ is gearing up for the opening round of the 2006
Australian Superbike Championship, which will support the second round of the
World Superbikes at Phillip Island this weekend. He is hoping for as much
success at the meeting as he is on 2 April when he lines up at Albert Park in
the dynamic BMW 1 Series.
Shawn is Australia’s most successful Superbike rider, having taken his first
Australian Championship in 2000 and followed it up with further convincing wins
in 2001 and 2002. He finished last season at the top of the leadership board
with equal 279 points, but lost the title on a count-back with three wins. Now
he wants to get away to a ‘flyer’ for 2006 – including the BMW Celebrity
Challenge.
“I’m going to go out and smoke the field,” an enthusiastic Giles said this
week about his inclusion in the BMW Celebrity Challenge and his chance to drive
the BMW 1 Series. “I’ve got two extra wheels, doors and a roof for protection so
it will be easy compared with racing the bike. I’m going to go out there and
have some fun.”
However, he will not be alone in his aims, or in moving from bikes to cars.
Crime writer and model Tara Moss is well known for her penchant for fast bikes
and she has already declared herself a strong contestant for the chequered flag.
Shawn will join a host of other sporting, TV and radio celebrities for the
Celebrity Challenge,
including champion jockey Damien Oliver, AFL all-time great Alastair Lynch,
Channel 9 TV personalities, Steve Jacobs and Ed Phillips, along with Cleo
Bachelor of the Year Ryan Phelan, the three of the four Wiggles –Murray Cook
(Red), Jeff Fatt (Purple) and Anthony Field (Blue), FOX footy presenter Tiffany
Cherry, Olympian and Commonwealth Games winner Giaan Rooney and Phil Keoghan,
from The Amazing Race.
The 2006 Celebrity Challenge has all the hallmarks of being another crowd
pleaser with 28 celebrities being earmarked to make their stamp on the bitumen
at the Albert Park circuit from 30 March to 2 April 2006. BMW will announce the
rest of the drivers as the Grand Prix promotional calendar rolls out in the
lead-up to the big race weekend.
All the celebrities will undergo a week of intensive driver training before
they are ‘let loose’ on the Albert Park circuit by CAMS officials and former
International racing car champion Geoff Brabham, who leads the team of BMW
Celebrity Challenge Driver Trainers.
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