CNR
17th February 2011, 09:56
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/17022011/23/button-lowndes-swap-cars-bathurst.html
Jenson Button and the McLaren team look likely to become the first current F1 representatives to lap Australia's legendary Mount Panorama circuit as he swaps seats with V8 Supercar frontrunner Craig Lowndes later this season.
An application from common sponsor Vodafone has been approved by Bathurst regional council, and should see the two drivers repeat last year's promotional event at Melbourne's Albert Park, where Button swapped seats with Lowndes' Triple Eight Racing team-mate Jamie Whincup to lap the Australian GP circuit at the wheel of a silver-and-red Holden Commodore. Lowndes, who once held F1 ambitions as he rose as high as the FIA F3000 championship in Europe, will finally get his hands on grand prix machinery on the circuit where he currently holds the lap record.
“Vodafone are always trying to find weird and wacky ideas and this is definitely their most far out idea so far!” Lowndes told V8 Supercar promoter BigPond Sport, “For me, it’s a great opportunity, but whether it comes off is another thing."
The biggest hitch in the plan is Mount Panorama's circuit licence, which does not permit F1 machines to be driven at full-speed, and may restrict Lowndes to a handful of demonstration laps instead. A similar plan to let former V8 driver Max Wilson loose in a Champ Car at the 2006 Bathurst International Motor Festival was also scuppered, leaving the Brazilian to run around behind the safety car, but Lowndes isn't too downhearted.
Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 Oct 6-9 2011
2011 FORMULA 1 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX (Suzuka) Oct 7-9 2011
if it was to happen it would be Oct 6
Jenson Button and the McLaren team look likely to become the first current F1 representatives to lap Australia's legendary Mount Panorama circuit as he swaps seats with V8 Supercar frontrunner Craig Lowndes later this season.
An application from common sponsor Vodafone has been approved by Bathurst regional council, and should see the two drivers repeat last year's promotional event at Melbourne's Albert Park, where Button swapped seats with Lowndes' Triple Eight Racing team-mate Jamie Whincup to lap the Australian GP circuit at the wheel of a silver-and-red Holden Commodore. Lowndes, who once held F1 ambitions as he rose as high as the FIA F3000 championship in Europe, will finally get his hands on grand prix machinery on the circuit where he currently holds the lap record.
“Vodafone are always trying to find weird and wacky ideas and this is definitely their most far out idea so far!” Lowndes told V8 Supercar promoter BigPond Sport, “For me, it’s a great opportunity, but whether it comes off is another thing."
The biggest hitch in the plan is Mount Panorama's circuit licence, which does not permit F1 machines to be driven at full-speed, and may restrict Lowndes to a handful of demonstration laps instead. A similar plan to let former V8 driver Max Wilson loose in a Champ Car at the 2006 Bathurst International Motor Festival was also scuppered, leaving the Brazilian to run around behind the safety car, but Lowndes isn't too downhearted.
Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 Oct 6-9 2011
2011 FORMULA 1 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX (Suzuka) Oct 7-9 2011
if it was to happen it would be Oct 6