Oz: Morcombe to debut in Mansell machine.

The tenth F307 Dallara chassis to compete this season will make its Kumho Tyres Australian F3 Championship debut this week as Queensland sportscar champion Steve Morcombe takes the plunge at Eastern Creek.

The Sunshine Coast-based sportscar regular recently imported the Mercedes-powered car from top British outfit Fortec Motorsport, and found himself with a chassis driven, at times, by both Greg and Leo Mansell, the sons of 1992 F1 world champion Nigel, in their British F3 campaign last season.

Morcombe - the proprietor of Morcraft Homes - has entered the car ahead of the weekend's sixth round in what will be his first 'wings and slicks' start after years of dominating the Queensland sportscar scene. Driving a 1600cc Chiron LMP3-05, Morcombe has spent the last few years winning regularly at tracks like Queensland Raceway and Morgan Park to claim state titles, but is looking forward to stepping up to the 'major leagues'.

"I started karting at about 30, after making some money to fund the racing," he explained, "After that I jumped into a Westfield Clubman and raced with Porsche GT3s driven by the likes of Tony and Klark Quinn, before I got the Chiron, which is a fantastic car. I'm going to keep that but, after a few years there, I needed a change."

After an extended period of preparation by his Kiwana Auto Service outfit, and a pre-round test session, Morcombe said he is finally ready to take to the track in the F3 car, at Eastern Creek, this week.

"I have been racing the Chiron for a few seasons now and wanted to look to race where there was a bit more regular action, so we decided to look for a national-level category with strong competition - and F3 was the choice," he said, "I didn't want to go into something with a tin top and certainly didn't want to go slower than I was already - which was about V8 Supercar pace in the sportscar. We were also looking for something quite technical that required some engineering and F3 really fits that need.

"We had a run with the car at Queensland Raceway the other day to make sure it was all working after the rebuild, but things look set for Eastern Creek. The plan at this stage is to run Sydney, Phillip Island and Indy [Surfers Paradise] this year ahead of the full championship in 2009, but we'll see how things go with that regard.

"The car was driven by Nigel Mansell's sons at Fortec last year, so it's not like I've got anything to live up to!"