Kiwi Jason Pryde has signed up for daunting double duties over the Adelaide weekend, combining the two Sprintcar shows with racing his Camaro in Trans Am.
The Perth-based driver is best known for his dirt track prowess, running a competitive Sprintcar team, JPM, in the strong WA series.
Pryde has also spent the past few seasons competing in TA2 and Trans Am, this year linking up with the Waltec Motorsport outfit.
At Adelaide, the two disciplines will come together with the final round of the Trans Am Series taking place over the four days and Sprintcar shows on the makeshift dirt track on Thursday and Friday nights.
Fresh from racing at the penultimate Trans Am round at Mount Panorama last week, Pryde is now facing the brutal physical test of two different V8-powered racers with a combined power of more than 1400 horsepower – and the mental fatigue that will come from early starts with the race car and late nights with the Sprintcar.
“It’s an entirely unique situation, to be racing two totally different cars, on two totally different tracks, but as part of the same event,” Pryde told Speedcafe.
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“It won’t be any sort of compromise from a driving perspective. I think it will be easy to switch between them, because they are so different, there’s no crossover in driving style.
“What will be tough is just getting through the whole weekend. It will be a huge mental and physical test, having that much track time over these long days.”
Adding to the challenge is a forecast of scorching weather, with a maximum of 36 degrees celsius currently predicted for Saturday.
Even Friday, which Pryde says will be the toughest test of them all, is expected to reach 27 degrees.
“The Friday will be particularly difficult – I’ll be coming off a late night Thursday in the Sprintcar, then on-track in the Camaro at 9am for practice followed by qualifying and then a race, and then back in the Sprintcar Friday night,” explained Pryde.
“That will be brutal and I’ll be feeling it on Saturday when it’s meant to be really hot.
“We did two [Trans Am] races at Bathurst and that was hard enough in the car. So from that perspective, Adelaide is going a massive challenge.
“It’s quite daunting. But at the same time, it’s super cool. This is a bucket list dream, the biggest single event I’ve ever been involved in. I’m really excited about it.”
The Adelaide double leads in to what will be a busy summer for JPM, which will field NASCAR superstar Kyle Larson at the three High Limits shows at Perth Motorplex at the end of December.
Another driver locked in for double duties in Adelaide is Super2 driver Brad Vaughan, who will race his Wingless Sprint alongside his Tickford Mustang.
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