Ivan Vantagiato got his first taste of the Hyper Racer X1 Open Wheeler during a test day at Winton today and with only one day of running, he’s already began to impress.

Today saw Vantagiato conduct roughly 80 laps in the Hyper Racer across six separate sessions as he prepares for his series debut at the season opener at the end of the month.

This was the Italian’s first time stepping into this particular race category with a ground-effect vehicle and started the day settling into the car and set a base time of 1:31s. As the day progressed, it didn’t take him long to get comfortable with the car and track as he then broke into the 1:24 barrier and then finally at the very end of the day, he was able to cut his lap time down to a 1:22.6.

“We are super delighted!” said Vantagiato.

“We came here with a goal to get into the 23s and we managed to walk away with a 22, we have some really good data to go over and we will come out at round one hoping that it will be a successful one for us as a race team.”

“The Hyper Racer is one of those race cars you have to try at least once in your life, it is an incredible machine, super powerful but at the same time it allows the driver to go as fast or as slow as they want without giving yourself too much discomfort.”

“The car handled incredibly well, the g-forces, everything is just spectacular with the way these cars have been designed by Hyper Racer and overall we couldn’t have had a better day besides from the weather with the heat, some thunderstorms and even some rain to add.”

“We are delighted to be part of the Australian Drivers Championship and are super pumped to for round one.”

The last time the Italian was at Winton, he ended up on the podium with a second place finish in the Formula RX8 series and will be looking to replicate that result when he races in the Australian Drivers Championship for the first time.

Round 1 of the ADC as well as the HiTec Oils Super Series takes place at Winton Raceway on February 28 – March 2 – Grab your tickets HERE!