It is beyond doubt that he is one of the participants with the longest journey to come to the VLN endurance racing championship events at the Nürburgring. This applies for Liam Talbot from Brisbane Australia. Travel time and racing time herby stand out of proportion as the flight time to come to the Nürburgring from his home country Australia is 22 hours. The travel stress for the 31 years old race driver is however compensated by the fascination of the traditional race track at the Nürburgring Nordschleife and by the Aston Martin V12 Vantage in which he competes in the races of this most popular grassroots series in Europe together whit Wolfgang Schuhbauer, Director at the Aston Martin Nürburgring Test Centre.
What is the fascination for you in racing at the Nürburgring? There are wonderful race tracks in Australia, too …
Yes, for sure we have fantastic circuits in Australia, too. But the Nürburgring and in particular the Nordschleife is simply unique in the word. To have a track with a distance of 25 kilometres is really crazy. The Nordschleife is a special challenge for all the drivers throughout the world.
Where does your passion for Aston Martin come from?
James Bond – the Aston Martin DB5 is a car icon for me, a fantastic and very complete car.
You are yourself the owner of a very special Aston Martin…
I have a One 77, and this is the only one of this kind in Australia. I am really highly impressed by the car and by the make. Where else can you buy a vehicle from a car manufacturer and then compete in races together with the engineers? You can ask any kind of questions to the Aston Martin engineers: Why have you done this and why have you done it this way? Any time! This is unbelievable and simply fantastic.
The distance between your home country and the Nürburgring is 16,000 kilometres – quite a long journey to travel for starting in a race, isn’t it?
For sure, as it is not less than 22 hours travel time – one way. I start my journey on Thursday morning, then I compete in the race on Saturday and my trip back to Australia starts on Sunday evening already. I must admit that this is a little exhausting but it is worth the trouble.
You have started racing since almost one year only. How did you get involved?
I have always been very interested in fast cars – just as probably every young boy. After I had successfully participated in the Aston Martin Driving Academy and in particular learned a lot from Andy Gülden, I have competed in my first VLN race this year. We are planning to start in the Nürburgring 24h Race next year. It is fantastic that I have this opportunity with Aston Martin.
The sixth round of the VLN endurance racing championship will take place on Sautrday, 14 September 2013. Liam Talbot will compete together with Wolfgang Schuhbauer (Brilon/ Germany) and Egon Allgäuer (Austria) in the Aston Martin V12 Vantage with start number 144. The 36th RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen which will run over a four hour race distance will figure additional Aston Martin customer teams on the grid. The positions on the grid will be decided in the time practice session between 08:45 and 10:15hrs and the race will start at 12:00hrs.
