FEBRUARY 2, 2002

Briscoe gets Melbourne drive

AS we predicted a week ago, Australian rising star Ryan Briscoe will be racing a Ferrari sportscar at Albert Park in order to learn the race track in preparation for his F1 debut which is expected to take place in 2003.

Briscoe will drive a Ferrari 360 Challenge coupe in the Nations Cup event supporting the Grand Prix. The car is being prepared by the Michelotto company in Italy and will be flown to Melbourne for the race.

The deal for Briscoe to race the Michelotto was engineered by Peter Hansen, the chief executive of CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motor Sport), after a request from long-time friend Ove Andersson, boss of Toyota's F1 team, to find the youngster a suitable drive at the event. The Nations Cup entry will feature some well-known Antipodean names, notably touring car veteran Jim Richards from New Zealand.