Hot Potato! The Wiggles and BMW unite

The Four Wiggles will abandon their traditional show cars for the ‘racy’ BMW 1 Series when they make their debut in the BMW Celebrity Challenge at the 2006 FORMULA 1™ Foster’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne from 30 March to 2 April next year.

The BMW Celebrity Challenge is one of the feature races leading into the ‘big boys’ event of Grand Prix racing with the stars of track, screen, the airwaves, business, politics and the sporting field showing off another side to their talents.

The Celebrity Challenge has been part of the Melbourne motor racing scene since 1999, featuring a wide array of stars – and driving abilities – from all over the world.

The 2006 event has all the hallmarks of being another crowd pleaser with 28 celebrities being earmarked to stamp their mark on the bitumen of the Albert Park circuit.

The Four Wiggles – Greg Page (Yellow Wiggle), Murray Cook (Red), Jeff Fatt (Purple) and Anthony Field (Blue) – took a personal inspection of the 1 Series in Melbourne today before heading off to one of their sell-out concerts.

Although Jeff Fatt and Anthony Field have taken part in previous Celebrity Challenges, it is the first time the four of them have lined up in a race together.

Among the other drivers who will be in the race are crime writer and model Tara Moss and Cleo Bachelor of the Year Ryan Phelan.

BMW Group Australia will announce the rest of the drivers as the Grand Prix promotional calendar rolls out in the lead-up to the big race weekend.

All the celebrities will undergo a week of intensive driver training before they are ‘let loose’ on the Albert park circuit by CAMS officials and former International racing car champion Geoff Brabham, who leads the team of BMW Celebrity Challenge Driver Trainers.

Brabham is a former Le-Mans and Bathurst champion, as well as winner of numerous championships in the US, including Sports Cars, Can-Am and Super Vees. He has also had 10 Indianapolis 500 starts (best results 4th and 5th), won the Sebring 12-hour race twice, and was inducted into the American Motor Racing Hall of Fame last year.

The much-acclaimed BMW 1 Series made its international racing debut at the Grand Prix weekend this year and gave Olympian James Tomkins a unique double, winning back-to-back Celebrity Challenges.

The special anniversary race featuring the winners and place getters from many of the previous BMW Celebrity Challenges, saw Tomkins down previous Celebrity Challenge winner and champion Ironman Guy Andrews, and the king of dance and actor Paul Mercurio. Just behind them in was Olympic gold medal speed skater Steven Bradbury and former AFL footballer Dermott Brereton.

© Copyright 2006 Driveguide.com.au

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