By Lachlan Onions
Penola’s Brad Gartner has continued his rise through the motorsport world and is set to take the next big step in his career when he makes his debut in the S5000 Tasman series at this weekend’s Adelaide 500.
Gartner told The Border Watch this week it was a dream come true and he was thankful for all the support he has received from his home town.
“To be able to race at Adelaide, it really is the biggest event in South Australia for motorsport and I have never driven in anything so big,” he said.
“I have never driven a support category for Supercars so that is a massive thing in itself.”
This will be Gartner’s first taste of racing in front of a national audience and in the past the Adelaide 500 has always been a highly-anticipated race for motorsport fans across the country.
He said the S5000 car is “completely different” to anything he has ever raced before and up until this week, has had limited exposure to open-wheeler cars.
Because of this, Gartner has put in plenty of work over the last few weeks to prepare himself for the biggest race of his career.
“I have been to Thomas Randle’s Dream Simulation twice in Melbourne,” he said.
“He has a full open-wheeler setup and I have been doing laps there of the Adelaide circuit in the S5000 model on the simulator.”
Gartner has also watched a number of videos of the S5000 cars and took part in a three-hour session at Tailem Bend on Tuesday, which was his first taste of driving the car.
“If I didn’t have that I would be going into Adelaide without driving the car and that’s not helpful at all,” he said.
“You don’t want to go to a street circuit with the concrete walls and massive crowds without driving the car so for my confidence, it is massive.”
Gartner hoped to be consistent throughout the weekend and wanted to try to make a name for himself without any incidents.
Not only will the Penola racer compete in the same event as some of the best drivers in Australia and New Zealand, he will also compete against Italy’s Giancarlo Fisichella.
The Italian took in over 200 races in Formula One and will hit the streets of Adelaide in the S5000 series for Team BRM.
This weekend presents a major opportunity for Gartner to take the next step in an already impressive career.
He said it would be great to compete in the S5000 series on a permanent basis.
“The S5000 is run by Garry Rogers Motorsport and what they do for junior drivers is mentor a lot of kids through the sport,” Gartner said.
“If I could cement myself in a category like this where they would help me out and lead me in the right direction, that would be massive.”
There will be three S5000 Tasman races across the weekend with the first on Friday at 2.55pm.
This will be followed by a race on Saturday at 1.20pm and on Sunday at 10.10am.
