The Big Picture People hot laps weekend, held at the end of June, was a great success! The promotion which was run during the month of April earlier in the year, gave the opportunity to approximately fifty Big Picture People customers to be driven around Sandown by V8 Supercar driver, Lee Holdsworth.

The promotional hot laps were split over two days. The first day, Friday 26th of June, was run in conjunction with a John Bowe Driving High Performance Course that was being conducted at Sandown on the same day. The Gantech Racing team spent the morning testing the cars and preparing for the hot laps that were run that afternoon.

Preparations were thrown a curve ball in the morning when the Gantech Racing team's premiere car, Big Picture People Car 33, was deemed to exceed the 75db noise limit imposed on the day.

As team members scrambled to get Car 33 fitted with resonators, Lee Holdsworth warmed up in Gantech Racing teams second car which was unveiled during the promotional weekend. The Big Picture People Car 34 was a backup car for the weekend, and is Car 33's little brother. Both cars are model VY Commodores, however Car 33 is fitted with an LS3 6.2L engine tuned to produce over 310kW at the rear wheels. Car 34, on the other hand, is still sporting a stock LS1 5.7L engine, tuned to produce approximately 250kW at the rear wheels. Car 34 was also having issues of its own, having a leaky master cylinder and a dodgy clutch which made it particularly painful to get into 3rd gear at the end of the front straight. Thankfully however it was not called upon during the afternoon as the team was able to succesfully get Car 33 back on the track, and within legal noise limits.

Ten lucky customers enjoyed their hot laps on Friday, and were all very happy with their ride. Lee was able to clock times between 1min 22s and 1min 23s seconds around the track on the day. The afternoon was a great success. However, just to keep the team busy overnight, as Lee brought the car in at the end of the day, the new KAAZ diff which had been fitted to Car 33 loosened up a bit too much causing a great amount of back lash and rendering the car pretty much undrivable. Thanks to the dedication of the team not to let their customers down, and the fantastic support from the boys at Corsa Specialized Vehicles, Car 34 was ready to go on the track next morning.

Saturday 27th was another succesful day for the Big Picture People and the Gantech Racing team. Approximately 40 customers (and some of their family members as well), enjoyed the thrill of being driven for a hot lap around Sandown. The customers that attended on Saturday had the option of taking their hot lap in either Car 33, or a Dodge Viper. And the Viper did a number of laps on the day. Car 34 was only called upon once during the day; this occured when Car 33 need a change of brake pads. The team and lucky customers are indebted to Lee who performed a super-human effort completing over 140 laps around the circuit on the day. It was a great weekend for the Big Picture People, for the Gantech Racing team, and we trust for all those involved, especially the customers.

Photos from the Big Picture People Hot Laps promotional weekend.