One of Australia's brightest young female motor sport talents, Chelsea Angelo, is set to make her ECB SuperUtes Series debut at Bathurst.
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Angelo currently races in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, sitting fifth in the points as a rookie, and has experience in the Dunlop Super2 Series, Formula Ford and Formula 3.
But now she is set for another challenge behind the wheel of a freshly-built Ford Ranger.
The 22-year-old has never driven a SuperUte before, however has raced at Mount Panorama in Formula 3 and the Dunlop Super2 Series.
READ MORE: Angelo chases a Dunlop seat
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In 2014 when she took on Mount Panorama for the first time in a Dallara F307, her maiden race featured a best lap of two minutes, 4.7725 seconds – an effort faster than Greg Murphy’s ‘lap of the Gods’.
Not bad given she was still on her L-Plates.
Now the Melbourne-born former Victorian Junior Go Kart champion has linked with an expanding Allgate Racing, which currently runs a single Ranger for Christopher Formosa.
Allgate team owner Micheal Formosa - Christopher's father - announced last month that his squad will field a second Ford from round six at the Bathurst 1000.
As a SuperUtes newcomer at Bathurst, Angelo is set to join Newcastle youngster Charlotte Poynting, pending the completion of a new Western Sydney Motorsport Toyota Hilux.
“Obviously driving a ute is something I’ve never done before, so to be driving this at Bathurst is going to be really different, really interesting in consideration of all the other categories I’ve been doing,” she said.
“It’s another opportunity, that’s how I’m looking at it.”
Currently, Simona De Silvestro is the only female in the main game, driving for Nissan Motorsport.
But Angelo hopes the extra SuperUtes seat time helps her reach a long-term goal of making it as a driver in the Australia Supercars Championship.
“My ultimate goal is to reach Supercars one day, it has definitely been a dream of mine since a young age,” Angelo said.
“It has been a hard few years to get to where I am today, but I'm proud of my achievements and where I’ve gotten to.
“It is great, I’d love to see more young girls come on-board and do actual racing and go against the boys as well.
“It is always a good motivation to see other girls doing the same thing and obviously SuperUtes, or whether it is Super2, Porches or any other categories.
“I love seeing other girls doing it, so it is a good step for them.
“It is also great to see Simona running in Supercars and to see some of the female engineers as well out there.”
The ECB SuperUtes Series will stage three races at Mount Panorama as part of its Bathurst round.
