Angelo Lazaris is one of the perennial mid fielders of the Vodka O Australian GT Championship. Since 2007 he has raced a Lotus Exige GT3 – a car that has always been turned out in immaculate detail. This weekend at Phillip Island he has teamed up with Barton Mawer and this has paid dividends with a second row grid position – out gunning many more fancied rivals. Here is what he had to say.
Hi Angelo, thanks for joining us – you have the that Lotus Exige GT3 going well this weekend – fourth on the grid.
Yeah it is going good for us. The little car is showing up a lot of the bigger cars. With Barton Mawer in the car too, he is helping quite a bit to get the times down so we are quite happy.
Possibly a little of a surprise too considering the faster nature of this track?
Yeah it is surprising! But it is a big sweeping kind of circuit and the car has a lot of stability through the high speed corners. It is keeping up well. It is surprising though considering the engine capacity compared to a lot of our competitors.
You also had a great run at the World Time Attack at Eastern Creek.
Yeah we came 16th overall and against some of those cars that are built for one lap and one lap only – they are out of this world.
You have a different livery this weekend too…
That is a remnant from the Time Attack where we ranYokohamatyres – so we have a full carbon effect on the car at the moment.
Obviously back using the Michelins again this weekend.
Yeah definitely and we should thank them too – they are holding up really well and we have some great pace on them. Our car too is quite light and it should be easier on the tyres than some of the heavier cars.
And on the Lotus – it was one of only a handful built and only a couple running.
In the world – yeah. There were four built all up and only two of them running at the moment. The other couple are in collectors museums. It’s a neat little car.
I love the go-kart nature of the car. I also love the kudos of racing a little car that is punching above its weight
Indeed. Why did you choose to run the Lotus?
I have been driving Lotus for the last 12 years or so and I love the go-kart nature of the car. I also love the kudos of racing a little car that is punching above its weight (laughs).
For the races – try to keep it at the pointy end?
That is the plan. We have Bart starting off tomorrow so hopefully he can keep it at the front so I can get in and have an easy ride home.
Fantastic – best of luck for tomorrow.
Thank-you.
