Melbourne driver Michael Gibson has added his name to the list of S5000 drivers slated for the Series’ debut at Sandown this month.
 
Australia’s newest open-wheel category will make its first competitive appearance at the Shannons Nationals at Sandown on 20-22 September.
 
Click here to purchase tickets to Sandown and be among the first to witness S5000 in the flesh.
 
Gibson is from a well-known Australian motor sport family, and with a background including Sports 2000 and touring cars, is also a motorsport engineer, tending the cars owned by Melbourne racer, Apex Steel’s Joe Calleja.
 
The team will take delivery of a brand new S5000 car shortly, to be based at Apex Racing’s facility in Melbourne, and prepared for the lead-in test day at Phillip Island in two weeks time.


 
Gibson said the Albert Callegher (ACM Finance), WM Waste and Apex backed entry would initially contest both Sandown and The Bend rounds of the Shannons Nationals.
 
“Since I was 16 I’ve been trying to put together a deal to race at a decent level – the fact that it is now happening, especially in something as awesome as S5000, is a bit surreal,” Gibson said.
 
“I’m incredibly thankful and grateful that Albert, Mark Jeffs (WM Waste), Joe, and others have combined to make this happen. We’ll be giving it our best shot.”
 
S5000 Category Manager Chris Lambden said Gibson’s addition to the field was a strong indication of the interest in the category.
 
“This entry represents one of the things we hoped to achieve with S5000,” Lambden said.
 
“Knowing Michael had the basics of a budget, and the motivation to get involved, and on the other hand Albert – a former racer with the desire and capability to create a team – we simply brought the two of them together. They met for the first time a couple of weeks back and now we have a complete entry.
 
“People who can remember back that far will recall that legendary F5000 champion in the 70s, Warwick Brown, got his start because his neighbour wanted to go racing … it’s great that we are able to put something like that together today.”