DALTON Ellery will step up from production car racing to tackle the 2022 Turtle Wax Trans Am Series.
Son of Supercars championship race winner Steve Ellery, Dalton will drive the ex-Harris Racing Ford Mustang previously raced by former series champion Aaron Seton.
Preparation is being spearheaded by motorsport stalwart Beric Lynton, who also prepared the BMWs that Ellery campaigned in last year’s Queensland Production Cars and Bathurst 6 Hour, the latter with father Steve and brother Tristan.
Ellery raced the car for the first time at Queensland Raceway late last year, and has tested at both the Ipswich circuit and Morgan Park ahead of his national series debut at Symmons Plains next month.
“My first taste of a Trans Am was at a race weekend last year at Queensland Raceway, which was a bit of a jump into the deep end,” Ellery said.
“We gave it a freshen up afterwards and completed another race event at Morgan Park in Sports Sedans where we weren’t really racing anyone, but we learnt so much through the course of those three days.
“It was just unbelievable how much we learnt about how the car works and the maintenance, so it was absolutely fantastic.
“I really got to grips with how the car handles, brakes and accelerates, plus the gearing as well.”
Ellery is the latest next-generation racer to take part in the Trans Am Series, joining Seton, Ben Grice, Jett Johnson, Nash Morris, Cameron Crick and John Harris among series alumni.
Next month’s event will be the first time Ellery has raced at Symmons Plains although he did visit the venue when his father was part of the touring car scene in the early 2000s.
Ellery is not concerned by his lack of experience and expects to be mixing it among the established drivers.
“Learning new circuits is not an obstacle for me,” Ellery said.
“I think there are certain tracks where you can master a craft and I think particular corners on some where experience matters, but coming out of the box I’m pretty confident to be able to get up to speed fairly quickly.”
The opening round of the Turtle Wax Trans Am Series features on the support card of the second running of AWC Race Tasmania at Symmons Plains on February 11-13.
