Filipino driver Enzo Pastor will become his country’s first person to drive a V8 Supercar.
The Manila-born 28-year-old will get behind the wheel of a TeamVodafone prepared Holden Commodore at Queensland Raceway on Thursday.
Pastor underwent evaluation testing at Paul Morris’ V8 Superschool on the Gold Coast today and was given veteran V8 Supercar driver Morris’ seal of approval for Thursday’s test at the Australian track.
The test coincides with V8 Supercars push to hold an event in the Philippines in 2013.
Pastor was thrilled with today’s driving experience and is looking forward to his first full-on test.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” said Pastor who is widely regarded as one of the Philippines’ leading race car drivers.
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“So far so good, today was really about showing what I can do without pushing things too hard. I learnt a lot from Paul, more here than I have ever been taught in the past so for just a few hours I’m really happy.
“When I grew up racing cars we never had driving schools in Manila so I was very much self-taught. It was great to have Paul with me today.”
Like many overseas drivers, Pastor has only driven a right-hand drive on a handful of occasions and said it was his greatest challenge, along with the heavy braking. He is getting ready for more challenges in the vastly more powerful, heavier V8 Supercar.
“That was my biggest issue today, in my entire career I’ve probably only driven a right-hand drive for an hour and a half,” he said.
“The power to weight ratio on Thursday should be fairly similar to what I am used to, it will just be the braking under the extra weight.”
Pastor won the 2002 Asian Formula Renault title, is a national Touring Car Champion, finished third in the CTM class at the 2009 Macau Grand Prix and in 2010 won the Philippine Sportswriter Association Annual Award for Motorsports.
Earlier this year he was the first Filipino to participate in Euro NASCAR in the Netherlands.
His ultimate goal is to land a drive in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series and then look to race in a V8 Supercar in the Philippines, one of several destinations V8 Supercars is targeting as part of its international expansion.
