Lee Holdsworth and Simon Pagenaud have high hopes for this year’s Armor All Gold Coast 600, where they will drive together for the second successive year.
Holdsworth and the Frenchman scored a podium finish in the second leg of the 2011 event driving for Garry Rogers’ Fujitsu Racing outfit.
The 28-year-old Pagenaud is in the midst of his first full IndyCar season driving for Schmidt/Hamilton Motorsports, and currently sits seventh in the series standings with a best race finish of third.
Pagenaud is one of a host of drivers from the open-wheel series expected to race at Surfers Paradise.
“I’m ecstatic to compete again in such a great event at the Gold Coast,” said Pagenaud of signing to drive the Stone Brothers Racing Ford.
“This team has had such great accomplishments and I felt very blessed when I got a call from (team co-owner) Ross (Stone). Reuniting with Lee Holdsworth is a tremendous opportunity.
“Lee and I really went along well last year and I managed to bring a surf board home. I will plan on bringing my A game to the table and hopefully aim for two surfboards this year.”
Holdsworth meanwhile is quietly confident that his efforts to bring Pagenaud across with him to the IRWIN entry will pay dividends.
“With Simon being familiar with the V8 Supercars that will definitely help us, plus we both know what we want out of the car and he is happy with the way I set the car up,” he said. “I think that will all work really well.”
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