Two-time MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner will take on nine-time Formula One Grand Prix winner Mark Webber and four-time V8 Supercar Champion Jamie Whincup in a race around Sydney Motorsport Park as part of next month’s Top Gear Festival Sydney.
The race, dubbed ‘The Aussie Speed Showdown’, will see Stoner – who retired from MotoGP last year – return to his former manufacturer as he pits his Honda CBR1000 motorbike against Webber’s 2013 Infiniti Red Bull Racing F1 car and Whincup’s new Red Bull Racing Australia V8 Supercar around the North Circuit at Sydney Motorsport Park (formerly Eastern Creek).
Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson said the race between three of Australia’s fastest men was the petrol equivalent of a bare knuckle brawl.
“Only Top Gear Festival would dare,” he said.
The massive motorsport event, hosted by Top Gear personalities Clarkson, James May, The Stig and Australia’s Shane Jacobson, is also set to include Stoner challenging three-time V8 Supercar Champion Craig Lowndes in a unique ‘Fish out of Water’ contest that will see the ex-MotoGP rider behind the wheel of Lowndes’ Red Bull Racing Australia V8 Supercar and the V8 star perched on a Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike.
Top Gear Festival Sydney will keep Australian car nuts occupied from March 9-10, before the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix begins in Melbourne on March 14.