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Barton Mawer secures entry into inaugural S5000 event at Sandown
Australian open wheel stalwart Barton Mawer will compete in the opening race of the all-new S5000 class at Sandown next weekend.
The New South Welshman will have his car privately entered by S5000 investor Bill Tymms, and will compete at both Sandown and The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia in November.
After a distinguished career in the Australian motorsport industry, both as a driver and as a driver trainer, Mawer will get reacquainted with high-powered wings and slicks race cars for the historic S5000 racing debut.
Mawer started his career in Formula Ford before moving to Australian Formula 3 where he was consistently a front runner, finishing with a best result of second outright in the 2003 championship.
He went on to try his hand in British and American open wheel racing, as well as a number of starts in GT race machinery, both here in Australia and around the world.
The New South Welshman also has the honour of being the fastest sedan driver to lap the Sydney Motorsport Park circuit after winning the 2018 World Time Attack in a Porsche 968.
Mawer’s spot on the grid of V8-powered race cars will feature some of the biggest names in Australian and international motorsport that already includes Formula 1 great Rubens Barrichello, Australian Indy 500 competitor Matthew Brabham and leading TCR Australia drivers Will Brown and John Martin.
Tickets for Sandown are on sale now. CLICK HERE to secure your place in Australian motorsport history.
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Barton Mawer
Driver, S5000
“I am so excited to be a part of Australian motorsport history by competing in the inaugural S5000
race at Sandown on 20-22 September,” said Barton Mawer.
“I have been following closely the journey this class has taken since the early inception. I met with Chris Lambden early in 2016 and could see his vision and admired the concept.
“As a young child I got to see the early stages of Formula Holden as my father was running a team and later preparing cars for the likes of Mark Larkham and watching those cars go through Turn 1 kink at Oran Park and T1 at Eastern Creek still inspire me to this day.
“Australia has been starved of a proper premier open wheeler category in this country for too long, S5000 has re sparked the interest of a lot of the old guard and some new people also.
“I have worked with Liam Dunn and his team by assisting his drivers at the circuit for a few years and have been impressed with his professional approach and enthusiasm. The forming of Milldun Motorsport is timely with their step in to S5000 and I will be working with them on other trackside
programs we will wrap around this.
“S5000 has shown they expect this to be a serious category. By announcing Rubens Barrichello and attracting quality drivers it has me fired up and also gives us a real platform to build on our partners to grow this team into an established operation.”
Liam Dunn
Owner, Milldun Motorsport
“To be part of something like this from the start is huge for the team and for Barton,” said Liam Dunn.
“The calibre of the drivers for the first event is very impressive, and the way the cars are built and designed, to really showcase the driver’s skill, is going to make this class an unbelievable spectacle. And GRM has done a tremendous job with the cars. The engineering and workmanship is first class.
“Barton’s experience in open wheelers is a perfect fit for our team. When the idea came about of running in S5000, Bart was really the only person we had in mind for it.
“There’s a lot of excitement at the moment for this category, and we’re definitely not going there to make up the numbers.”