AARON Love will this weekend become Supercars’ latest second-generation driver.
Love is making his top-tier debut at the Sandown 500 in a Blanchard Racing Team wildcard Mustang, 29 years after his father Ian contested the event.
Love Sr made 10 championship race starts, all at Wanneroo Raceway, between 1987 and 1995.
He placed 14th in his one and only Sandown 500 attempt, partnering Don Watson in a Perkins Engineering-built VP Commodore.
The duo subsequently entered the following month’s Bathurst 1000 but did not make the Great Race grid after Watson was tragically killed in a crash during practice.
The next-generation Loves have each climbed the motorsport ladder, Aaron’s older brother Jordan winning the 2019 Carrera Cup Australia crown en route to becoming an internationally based Mercedes-AMG professional junior driver.
Now, Aaron will pick up where Ian left off.
MORE: The big call which put Love on course for Supercars
“It’s obviously cool to have that sort of family heritage in racing,” the 21-year-old told V8 Sleuth.
“I know it’s not probably quite as much as some other racing families but to have that racing history is pretty cool and to have Dad there who actually understands the sport as well definitely helps.
“He and Mum are coming to watch so it will be pretty cool and really nice to have Mum and Dad both there for my first race in Supercars and hopefully there’s more to come.”
Ian’s last ATCC start came years before Aaron was born, but that didn’t stop him from enjoying a motorsport-loving upbringing of sorts.
“From an early age it wasn’t something that was deeply ingrained in us that everything was about racing, it was just that Dad was a racing fan and liked his cars and me and Jordan growing up enjoyed playing with little cars on the dining room floor or dining room table,” said Aaron, who is tipped to go full-time with BRT next year.
“We always went to the Supercars when they came to Perth.
“It wasn’t really something our family was obsessed with, it was just something that we enjoyed going and doing and spectating and being a part of it.”
Love has Jake Kostecki as his co-driver for Sandown and Bathurst, while BRT’s regular #3 CoolDrive Mustang will be shared by Todd Hazelwood and Tim Blanchard.
V8 Sleuth’s coverage of the 2023 Penrite Oil Sandown 500 is proudly presented by Biante – Fuel your passion with winning model cars. Visit Biante here to check out their range of model cars in a range of scales from 1:64 to 1:10.
