Harrolds Volante Rosso Racing will expand to a two-car team for the next round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS at Sandown this weekend.
Alongside their existing Harrolds Racing Mercedes AMG GT3, the team will add a Mercedes AMG GT4 entry to the field.
The car, which made its debut at Phillip Island earlier this season, will be driven by Chris Batzios and Sam Brabham this weekend, in the pair of one-hour races that comprise Round 3 of the championship. Both races will be broadcast live on Stan Sport.
“Obviously I am very excited in joining the GTWC grid for the first time,” Batzios, who makes his GT World Challenge Australia debut this weekend, said.
“It has been in planning for a while I cut my teeth in the Victorian state series for a couple of races.
“The car itself won under debut at Phillip Island in March earlier this year with Ross and Sam behind the car. Now with Ross making the step up to GT3, the opportunity has come up where I get to jump in with Sam.
“I have done over 15 test days in the car since taking delivery of it from Germany last year, so I feel I've really come to grips with it and understand it quite well. Nevertheless, I have only had a handful of laps in this car at Sandown and it was in horrible wet conditions so very excited to see how the AMG GT4 handles the bumpy surface of Sandown, particularly if its wet.”
The AMG GT4 was driven by Brabham and Ross Poulakis at Phillip Island and had a particularly strong weekend.
The car qualified second in GT4 for the opening race before scoring pole for Race 2.
Victories in both races then capped off a successful debut for the car with the Harrolds Racing squad.
Batzios said he was excited to be sharing the car with Brabham for his GTWC debut.
“What a privilege to have your name mentioned in the same sentence as a Brabham,” he said.
“Sam is an absolute great young man with a lot of talent and he has been on this journey with me for sometime, together with Peter Hackett.
“His guidance and coaching has been invaluable in improving my driving from trackdays in fast road cars to developing skills to drive a racecar and compete.
“It's a real privilege to have him within the Harrolds Racing Family and hopefully this is a further opportunity for him to showcase to the wider motorsport landscape of his skill and reinforce that it would be great to see him driving full time.
“I will definitely be leaning on his experiences and might put a call into David Brabham for a few extra tips.”
Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia’s two 60-minute races will be covered by Stan Sport’s live, uninterrupted and on-demand coverage.
To purchase tickets to the penultimate round of the SpeedSeries at Sandown featuring Supercheap Auto TCR Australia, Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia, Gulf Western Oil Touring Car Masters, Turtle Wax Trans Am, Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge and the Australian Production Car Series brought to you by LIQUI MOLY head to motorsporttickets.com.au.
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