Young racer Hamish Ribarits will join the grid of the TCR Australia series for the second event at Phillip Island this weekend, racing the Audi RS3 LMS which was driven by Rik Breukers at the previous event.
Ribarits will join the Melbourne Performance Centre in a third Audi RS3 LMS this weekend, racing alongside Garth Tander and a yet-to-be-confirmed third Audi driver.
Ribarits, 19, is the current leader of the Super3 Supercars series after two rounds, where the Victorian is racing a Ford FG Falcon. He has previously raced in Australian Formula Ford last year.
“It is a really exciting for me – a completely new avenue of racing for me,” said Ribiritis, who was victorious at the circuit earlier this year in his first race in a touring car.
“I’ve never driven a front wheel driver car before, so there’s a lot of learning to do, but it will be cool to drive the car on Friday and get into the racing on Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s going to be completely different to what I’m used to. From what I hear from other drivers, it’s difficult to get rear temperature into the tyres, but I’ll just look to learn and improve as the weekend goes on and gain experience in a completely different style of car.
“Having Garth Tander as a team-mate is going to be very beneficial for me. The amount of years that he has been racing, I’ll be able to pick up from him and use him as a benchmark.”