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Brad Gartner ready for National Trans Am Series debut
South Australian youngster Brad Gartner will make his National Trans Am Series debut next month at the third running of AWC Race Tasmania at Symmons Plains.
Forming an all-South Australian attack on the National Trans Am Series alongside teammate Lee Stibbs at MVA Racing spearheaded by Michael Vidau in a pair of Ford Mustangs.
The duo graduated from Hyundai Excels, but progressed to National Trans Am via the TA2 Muscle Car Series where Gartner impressed scoring multiple podiums, a provisional pole position at Sydney Motorsport Park and victory during the final round at Winton in what was a limited campaign.
Although just 19-years-old, Gartner has been surrounded by motorsport for much of his life as a third-generation racer with his father a successful competitor in speedway. Apart from racing Excels, Gartner has competed successfully in dirt karts, junior sedans, late model speedway and last year raced at the VALO Adelaide 500 in S5000.
Gartner is still on the search for further sponsorship to bolster his racing campaign. He can be contacted via bgartner19@outlook.com.
The opening round of the National Trans Am Series is at AWC Race Tasmania on February 24-26. CLICK HERE to secure your tickets.
Stan Sport will provide live, uninterrupted and on-demand coverage of all SpeedSeries rounds. AWC Race Tasmania will also feature free-to-air broadcasting on the Nine Network’s digital channels on Saturday afternoon from 2-5pm (February 25).
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Brad Gartner
MVA Racing, Ford Mustang
“AWC Race Tasmania will definitely be my debut in Trans Am, I’ve never competed in this series,” said Gartner.
“We were due to do Bathurst, but I was sorting out an S5000 for Adelaide, as we decided to regroup, get some more miles in the car at Winton and make our debut at Symmons Plains next month.
“It was pretty surprising, I’d never ever driven a Trans Am car before, went up to Queensland Raceway and raced an ex-Chris Pappas Mustang to third on debut. We went to Sydney and I scored provisional pole, but we had a mishap with the engine in the Top 10 Shootout forcing us to retire from the weekend.
“At Winton we picked up a win and finished second outright for the weekend.
“We’re very keen to get involved, Mike Vidau from MVA Racing and Lee Stibbs my teammate, we are all excited to join the series to get a taste of it. We’ve been watching it on Stan Sport, so we’re pretty excited.
“It’ll be my first time to Tasmania, so I’m looking forward to racing there. Throughout the off-season Mike’s been getting the cars ready, so the pair are fresh for Tassie as we work on sponsors.
“In terms of driving the track I haven’t done much, I went to see Thomas Randle at Dream Simulation before I raced the S5000, but I haven’t managed to get there yet.
“It’ll be an eye-opener as it’s a very competitive series and it’s the next step, which we can’t wait to start.”