American Trans Am Series racer Robert Noaker will return to Australia with another opportunity to take on the locals, not once but twice this time around.
Noaker was at the inaugural Bathurst Invitational last year and made his Australian debut in the Trans Am 100 Invitational. He raced a Dream Racing Challenger and finished the first race 14th, the second eighth and DNF’d out of the last.
This time around, the American will double his efforts with Craig Scutella’s Dream Racing team in a Camaro, previously raced by Tim Shaw. He will take part in the seventh and penultimate round at Sydney Motorsport Park, a week before he heads back to Mount Panorama.
This year Noaker has contested three rounds of the US Trans Am Series with a best finish of sixth at Lime Rock. There he raced against two-time Australian National Trans Am Series winner and former Dream Racing Australia driver Nathan Herne.
But Noaker’s focus has been on the competitive US Mazda MX-5 Cup where he finished seventh in the standings after scoring a best of second at Mid-Ohio.
“It’s really great to come back to Australia with Dream Racing Australia, especially to do two rounds,” said Noaker.
“We had some stuff occur at home and we weren’t sure we could do it. It was three weeks before the race we confirmed, leaving us to scramble to get flights, pick up passports and visas, so we made it all happen.”
The final two rounds of the 2023 National Trans Am Series encompass Sydney Motorsport Park on November 3-4 and the Bathurst International on November 10-12.
Team Owner Scutella added that Noaker has shown his mettle on his home circuits, while at Bathurst last year, in changeable conditions, he did sensationally well before a tailshaft took him out of the final race with one lap remaining.
“Given that experience and the knowledge of Bathurst, I think Robert could sneak a podium,” Scutella predicted.