Newcastle teenager Drew Russell will further his way into the motorsport ranks when he starts his first season behind the wheel of a Fujitsu V8 Supercar. Making his debut at the 2004 Clipsal 500 at the age of 16, he became the youngest driver to ever take on the Australian Production Car Championship.

The following year seen Russell improve on his form, taking out Class A and scoring second outright in the Championship.

“I’m really excited about it,” explained Russell. “We’ve had a good run in Production Cars and GTP in the last couple of years and this is really the next step as I work towards my goal of racing successfully in the V8 Supercar Championship Series.

“We’ve seen that in the last few years, out of all the classes in Australia, the Development Series has the best track record in terms of driving moving up the Main Game, so it’s the place to be.”

As an early Christmas, Russell recently took control of a VX Commodore previously driven by Derek Van Zelm.

“The car will be massively different to anything I’ve driven before. Both the Honda S2000 and the Mazda RX7 I’ve driven are essentially road cars, so it will be an enjoyable challenge to get to grips with the V8.”

Russell makes his debut at Race 1 of the Fujitsu Series on March 1-4 2007 at the Clipsal 500.