WHEN Ben Kavich lines up on the grid for Sunday’s Bathurst 6 Hour, he will not only be racing for a class win and a top 10 outright performance in his Subaru Impreza.
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He will also ‘race for a cure’ in his pink #15 entry, Kavich aiming to both create awareness of and raise funds for the Breast Cancer Institute of Australia.
Kavich’s mission to help make more clinical trials possible comes from seeing the struggle those suffering from breast cancer go through.
After his grandmother Grace (2002) and mother Mary (2004) had previously been diagnosed, not long after the inaugural edition of the Bathurst 6 Hour last year his wife Toula discovered she had breast cancer.
“Despite wonderful advances in medicine, too many people still die from breast cancer or struggle through painful treatments and we want to do our part to change this,” Kavich, who will race alongside his brother Michael and close friend Kieren Pilkington at Mount Panorama, said.
The Sydney outfit will form part of the B1 Class on Sunday as the Kavich brothers continue what has been a long association with Mount Panorama.
Ben Kavich has previously raced in V8 Utes, Holden HQs, and Formula Ford series rounds at the track, while Michael Kavich has tackled the 6.213 kilometre circuit as part of the Historic Touring Cars Bathurst round.
They competed alongside each other in the one hour Production Touring Car race staged at Bathurst in 2014, following in the tread marks of their father Tony. He contested the Great Race a number of times in the 1980s behind the wheel of the Yellow Pages Commodore.
“We have been around the track all our lives, we were also up there watching Dad race in the very first 12 Hour in 1991,” Ben Kavich said. “It’s the best place in the world, we love coming up there to race.”
The Kavich brothers were part of the field last year when the Bathurst 6 Hour was staged for the first time and after a promising start, ended up with a DNF.
Naturally they are hoping for better this time around in an event Ben Kavich feels will have a big future.
“Last year we unfortunately had an electrical problem three hours in which lost us 10 laps and put us out of contention. Until that point we were knocking on the door of a top 10, which would have been fantastic,” he said.
“Then, with about half an hour to go, we had an engine problem and we broke down and did not finish.
“I actually think this event – and you can already see this year with 66 cars and 300-odd drivers – I think it will become a pinnacle event.”
Donations can be made at www.raceforacure.org.au while the team will also have a stand set up at Mount Panorama over the weekend.