Clarkson to host Top Gear Festival Sydney

The official schedule for the first ever Top Gear Festival Sydney, to take place at Sydney Motorsport Park, Eastern Creek for one weekend only - Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th March, has been unveiled.

Jeremy Clarkson, James May and The Stig will be joined by Australian co-host Shane Jacobson and a host of international celebrities as they descend on the newly refurbished Sydney Motorsport Park with over 9 hours of live automotive mayhem each day across two race circuits and live action zones.

For the first time ever on a Sydney track the Red Bull Racing Formula One team together with Mark Webber will take pole position on the new and extended Circuit. As well as attempting to break the lap record they’ll be squaring off against reigning V8 Supercars champion Jamie Whincup and racing legend Craig Lowndes in The Ultimate Race: F1 Vs V8.

It will be a weekend of motoring firsts as Clarkson throws down the gauntlet to various forms of transport in Clarkson Vs, James May attempts to speed up the Express Postal service with help from a few MotoGP legends with the Postie Bike Challenge, and The Stig sets power lap times in some of the rarest supercars the country has ever seen. Alongside the opening round of 2013 racing for the Touring Car Masters series featuring John Bowe and Jim Richards, and Radical Australia Cup, a world renowned athlete will be taking on Clarkson in a 100m race and we will see if we can get a man to jump a Lamborghini at 100kph

Three celebrity teams will battle it out in the inaugural Tri-Nation’s Cup; a series of motoring challenges that risk life and limb, but ends in glory and possibly a small trophy for the winners. Australia wil be lead by Craig Lowndes, New Zealand skippered by Fabian Coulthard and the rest of the world captained by none other than The Stig. If that’s not enough we’ll be running myPlates Star in a Reasonably Priced Car challenge each day on the technical 1.8km myPlates South Circuit. Australian Socceroo Brett Emerton, Olympic Gold medalist Steve Hooker, cricketing legend and TV personality Michael Slater, Channel 9 reporters Roz Kelly and Emma Freedman and the Triple M Grill Team boys Matty Johns, Gus Worland and Mark Geyer are just a few of the celebrities who will test their limits behind the wheel of our reasonably priced car.

If it’s got wheels and an engine we’ll be pitching it into battles on track. Former F1 World Champion Alan Jones will be setting his 1980 Williams F1 car against Bathhurst legend Colin Bond in Alan Moffat’s 1977 Ford Falcon. Jamie Whincup will be taking on aerobatic pilot Matt Hall to settle which is faster round the track In the Car vs Plane Race. And we’ll be attempting to jet power Clarkson so he can drag race himself down the main straight…

Australia is only the second country in the world to host a Top Gear Festival, and it will only take place in Sydney. Across the Festival weekend the Yokohama Stunts & Jumps Zone will feature extreme stunt rider Matt Mingay, Showtime FMX with their own brand of insane freestyle motocross action, Jack Field and the Flair Action Riders, and Stunt Driving School offering visitors the chance for a white knuckle ride.

Sixteen of Australia’s finest drifters will also take to the myPlates South Circuit in the Just Cars Drifting sessions to tear it up and show the true extremes of drifting lead by Beau Yates, Luke Fink and Rob Whyte. World famous Deus Ex Machina will take to the track, with on-track parades daily to include their world famous creations.

The Variety Family Zone will be filled with fun and entertainment for the younger generation; Land Rover Discovery and freestyle trial bike will be showcasing their skills on the brutal Onsite Rental Group Off-Road Challenge; and there’s a wide range of delicious food and drink experiences, including cider gardens, all combining to create an unmissable weekend.

Jeremy Clarkson was quoted as saying, “it’s another chance for us whinging poms to get sunburnt and attacked by spiders” when Sydney was sighted as the perfect place to host the massive outdoor track festival.

Top Gear Live Creative Director, Rowland French, said “as usual we’ve made it as ambitious as humanly possible, and if we pull it off this will be our greatest festival yet. Nowhere else in the world allows petrolheads to witness Top Gear challenges from the comfort of their own piece of sun drenched grass. What could possibly go wrong, right?”

For more info head to www.topgearfestivalsydney.com.au