By Ian Lockwood
March 7 2013

Mark Webber and the showcar team head to Sydney before the Australian Grand Prix – but there’s a bit more to this run than doughnuts and burnouts…

Oh yes, it’s that time of year again. The racing season is about to get underway and while the Australian Grand Prix really isn’t lacking in hype, Mark’s going to take the showcar out for a spin anyway, just to give it that little extra boost. He and the RB7 will be appearing at Jeremy Clarkson’s TopGear Festival, the celebration of all things petrol-powered, taking place at Sydney Motorsport Park, better known to racing fans as the Eastern Creek International Raceway.

Mark doesn’t get his hands on a real, live showcar very often, so to make him feel comfortable we’ll send along some friends to chase around. Four time V8 Supercars champion Jamie Whincup will be driving the Red Bull Racing V8 Holden Supercar. Meanwhile one of Jamie’s junior team-mates from the V8 series, a rookie by the name of Casey Stoner, has agreed to dust off his bike leathers and give the pair of them a race in an event being billed as The Aussie Speed Showdown.

As far as we can tell it’s the first time that an F1 car, an Aussie V8 and a Superbike (Casey’s on his Honda CBR1000RR, not the other one) have gone head-to-head, so good luck to the organisers sorting out the handicapping there.

“A lot of effort has gone into organising this and it’s going to be an incredible event,” says Mark. “It’s going to be really great to demonstrate the different speeds of the cars and the bike. Obviously there’s a real V8 theme to the whole event but having Casey on the bike and the F1 car there as well is going to make it really cool.”

Mark’s also going to be attempting to set a lap record on the North Circuit, currently a fairly rapid Formula Atlantic 0:59.608. “I’m really looking forward to that too,” he added. “I’ve driven across the harbour bridge but apart from that I’ve never had the opportunity to drive a Formula One car in this area before – so it’s going to be good to get a go on a proper circuit.”

Mark’s going to be appearing at Eastern Creek on Saturday and Sunday doing a full day of runs, races and fan events on both days. Conveniently, his next event is in Australia too…