Hamish Ribarits will join Melbourne Performance Centre in one of the team’s Audi RS 3 LMS cars for the TCR Australia Series at Phillip Island this weekend.
The former karting champion will drive the Audi that Rik Breukers drove in the opening round of the series at Sydney Motorsport Park last month. He currently leads the Super3 Supercars Series after two rounds; last year the 19-year-old finished runner-up in the Australian Formula Ford Championship.
Ribarits will be driving one of the four cars fielded by the MPC squad this weekend. Garth Tander will be in another Audi, while the driver of third RS 3 LMS car will be confirmed soon. The team’s fourth entry is Aaron Cameron’s Volkswagen Golf GTI.
“It is really exciting for me, a completely new avenue of racing,” said Ribarits. “I’ve never driven a front-wheel drive car before, so there’s a lot of learning to do, but it will be cool. From what I hear from other drivers, it’s difficult to get temperature into the rear 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.”