Riewoldt training in full swing for celebrity race

12 May 2020

Richmond Tigers AFL star improving with help of Supercars drivers

2 mins by James Pavey

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Richmond Tigers AFL premiership-winner Jack Riewoldt is making inroads into his preparations for Supercars’ celebrity Eseries race next week.

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The 31-year-old is one of 18 competitors already confirmed for the May 18 event, when high-profile sporting identities will go head-to-head racing at Bathurst via simulators.

Riewoldt is close mates with Shell V-Power Racing driver Scott McLaughlin, who leads the BP Supercars All Stars Eseries at the halfway point, but that’s not been his only source of motorsport wisdom.

“Scott has been coaching me a little bit but I’ve been driving at Dream Simulation with Tommy Randle actually and his dad Dean, so I’ve been down there punching out a few laps around the Mountain,” Riewoldt said on Supercars SideTracked.

“I started on a pretty low base so I have rapidly improved – I couldn’t get much worse.

“I think I crashed about 25 times in my first lap around there but yeah, I’m getting better slowly.

“I still have got a couple of practice runs before next Monday night.”

Riewoldt later added: “My goal is, before the race I want to get down to sort of like 2:08 to 2:09 for a lap around Mount Panorama in the simulator.

“I’m getting about two seconds better every time so with another sort of 14 visits to the simulator I think I’ll be down there!”

Dunlop Super2 Series driver Randle recently launched his Dream Simulation business; among his clients to date has been Lee Holdsworth, who he teamed up with in the 2019 PIRTEK Enduro Cup.

Randle acted as race engineer for Holdsworth at last week’s Eseries round at Spa, with Holdsworth benefiting to finish eighth, 11th and eighth in the three races.

Riewoldt, who revealed his first car was a hand-me-down Nissan Pulsar that was stolen within weeks, said he enjoyed working with McLaughlin on their podcast.

“It’s been going good, it’s a lot of fun and I think we just like ribbing each other and sometimes stirring the pot, more in Supercar land than in AFL world,” he laughed.

The celebrity race will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 506 following SideTracked next Monday, from 7pm AEST.

It will also be broadcast live on Sky Sports (NZ), Supercars’ Facebook page, Twitch and YouTube.