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The Bathurst 1000 will feature an all-female team in 2015 for the first time in 17 years, with Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro to partner Queenslander Renee Gracie.
It’s the first time since Kerryn Brewer and Melinda Price partnered to an 11th-placed finish in 1998 that an all-female team has featured at Bathurst, with the most recent appearance by any female driver being Leanne Tander in 2009.
De Silvestro has raced for Andretti Autospot in the IndyCar series for four years and while yet to record a win she is the third woman to record a podium finish in the series, finishing second in the first race of the 2013 Grand Prix of Houston.
She has also tested with Formula One team Sauber, and will participate in this year’s Forumla E electric car championship.
V8 Supercars and the Mount Panorama circuit are both new frontiers for the Swiss driver, but she’s excited by the challenge.
“I’m a pretty big fan of V8 Supercars, especially when I was in the US,” de Silvestro said.
“The Bathurst 1000 race was actually the first V8 race that I ever watched on TV. The cars look like a lot of fun to drive.
“The Bathurst track looks really interesting, really hilly. I’ve raced in Europe, some of the tracks have similarities.”
Once refused entry to the US by a customs official who refused to believe she could be a professional racer, de Silvestro knows that the presence of an all-female team will attract some attention.
However, she believes only results matter.
“I think at the end of the day when we wear the helmet we’re judged as a racecar driver,” she said.
“I think I’ve achieved that. I’ve always been able to win races in the series I’ve been in – except in IndyCar, which is missing right now but hopefully that will change too!”
Renee Gracie, de Silvestro’s partner for the Bathurst 1000, is currently the only woman competing in the V8 Supercars Dunlop series, the second tier of the V8 Supercars competition.
“It’s extremely exciting,” Gracie said. “It’s exciting to have an international driver in Simona, someone who I look up to, and I’m living my dream I guess.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to the mountain but I never thought I’d be debuting in the Bathurst 1000 in my rookie year of the development series.
“It’s exciting and overwhelming at the moment but I can’t wait to meet Simona and get into it.”
Gracie is also aware of the challenges she’s facing – not just making her Bathurst 1000 debut, but also to be guiding an international driver on their first trip around the track.
“It’s going to be a massive challenge, I’m never going to underestimate that,” Gracie said.
“I think Simona and I are going to have our own challenges and our own race as such – we’re going to have our own things to achieve over the weekend.
“I don’t think it will be too bad, we’ll be focused and we’re pretty competitive but I think we’ll be level-headed at the same time.”
De Silvestro and Gracie will race on a two-year contract in a Ford Falcon run by Prodrive Racing Australia. The guarantee of a second year on the track will be a comfort to them as they gain experience first-time around.
“Our objective for this year is to just learn. It’s a big weekend so (we just want to) stay on the lead lap, we’re not going to go out and win it but you never know what will happen – Chaz [Mostert] did it last year from last!” Gracie said.
“It’s one of those things, we’ve got to get as many laps as we can and maximise the weekend.
“Next year, we’ll be competitive, we’ll have the experience, I’ll have another year in the development series as well so next year the expectations will be much higher.”