January 24, 2012

Bates Favours Carrera Cup for 2012

Tony Bates has purchased a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car and will compete in the 2012 Porsche City Index Carrera Cup Australia, driving for the front-running Andy McElrea Racing operation.

After a strong season with Greg Murphy Racing in the 2011 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series, Bates decided to embark on a new challenge, and is looking forward to competing on the support card at some of Australia’s highest-profile racing events, including the Australian Grand Prix, Clipsal 500, Bathurst 1000 and Gold Coast 600.

Favourit.com, which supported Bates’ Fujitsu Series campaign last year, has been confirmed as his major sponsor alongside new sponsor, leading Melbourne Real Estate Agents Bekdon Richards and Bates’ company Alternative Freight Services.

“It was a tough decision to step away from the Fujitsu Series, because I was really starting to come to grips with driving a V8 Supercar, which was reflected in my race results,” Bates said.

“I had quite a few top-10 finishes, and I was racing side by side with some accomplished and experienced drivers. However, the Fujitsu Series has an increasing number of main game teams that are running entries in the series and the privateer teams simply don’t have the resources or the budget to battle with the main-game cars. In saying that, GMR were and are a fantastic team to run with so the decision to leave them was not an easy one at all.

“The best drivers in Carrera Cup are on par with the front-runners in the Fujitsu Series and main game and the cars are identical, which levels the playing field. The series is very professionally operated by Porsche Cars Australia, and the level of exposure is just as good as, if not better than the Fujitsu Series.

Asked about his new team, Bates said, “I’m looking forward to driving with Andy McElrea Racing. Andy is very experienced with Porsches and has had lots of success both here in Australia and over in Asia. I tested one of his cars at Queensland Raceway last year and I really enjoyed driving it.

“I had a few options but decided on the best-prepared team in Carrera Cup, both
professionally and results wise. The drivers at McElrea Racing are pushing for round wins so that will only help my development as I aim at their level which will allow me to be competitive in my first year.

“There will be some things I will need to get used to. The Carrera Cup car is left-hand drive, and the handling characteristics are very different to V8 Supercars but after my test day at QR the team was extremely happy with my times.

“There is an Elite class, but I will be aiming to run with drivers in the Professional class and then the Elite championship will take care of itself.”