Fiat 500 Celebrity Race at Australian GP

Fiat 500 race cars at F1 GP / Fiat

Racer tests 500's crash safety systems!

The Vodafone Celebrity Challenge race went down well down under where Fiat 500 racing cars went up against one another as a sideshow to the F1 main race. Won by motocross champ Robbie Maddison, with Nathan Buckley second and downhill skier Steven Lee third, the celeb challenge wasn’t all about famous people driving a small famous car.

Said “Maddo” Maddison: “I really wanted to put on a show today and thank the sponsors for making all this happen. I’ve set world records on a motorcycle, but this experience has been a notch above.”

In a test of strength, and non-fitted airbags, former Australian Football League’s Western Bulldogs star Luke Darcy hit a safety railing during the third lap. This after he was nudged out of the way by Don Elgin, the track and field star.

“My intention was to take [Nathan] Buckley out, but Darcy just got in my way” quipped Elgin.

Although the Safety Car came howling down the track, no one had been seriously injured. The true victim of this test of manhood was the 500, which had to be removed from the scene.

Source: Fiat

show/hide press release

Former AFL star Luke Darcy has proven just how safe the new Fiat 500 is, walking away from the ‘accident’ that all but stopped the second Vodafone Celebrity Challenge race at the 2008 Formula 1™ ING Australian Grand Prix at the weekend (16 March 2008) when his car punched hard into the safety railing with sufficient force to roll it onto its side.

Darcy was embroiled in a fierce battle for sixth position on lap three when he was nudged from behind by athletics competitor Don Elgin, forcing him into the wall and an almost slow-motion flip, from which he walked away uninjured.

“It was a cheap shot, and I’ll be speaking to my lawyer during the week,” joked Darcy, to which Elgin responded: “My intention was to take Buckley out, but Darcy just got in my way.”
Darcy was unhurt in the incident, but the Safety Car was required while a battered and bruised Fiat was taken away.

In a congested finish, freestyle motocross wiz Robbie Maddison went on to make it a clean sweep, finishing ahead of AFL Brownlow Medallist Buckley and downhill skier Steven Lee.

Maddo probably came under the most pressure on the warm-up lap when he lost traction and came within a whisker of sliding off the track. He managed to hold it all together though, and re-produced his sublime performance from race one.

“I really wanted to put on a show today and thank the sponsors for making all this happen,” said Maddison. “I’ve set world records on a motorcycle, but this experience has been a notch above.”

Maddison’s goal of turning the Vodafone Celebrity Challenge into his own ‘full monty’ (pole position, two wins and two fastest laps) was upset by Buckley, who uncorked the fastest lap in race two.

“It was exciting to be involved on the whole event, and it’s something all the drivers will cherish,” said Buckley.

Darcy was the only DNF in the shortened race two, with AFL ‘icon’ Bryan Strauchan the last driver home - his aspirations of doing a ‘Steven Bradbury’ not quite coming off.

Maddison finished with a perfect 68 points after the two races, from Buckley (57), Lee (57), Guy Leech (50) and Mark Philippoussis (46).