Sherriff ready for Sports Sedans debut in new weapon
Brad Sherriff is excited to race in the Precision National Sports Sedans Series for the first time at The Bend this weekend and will do so with a new beast.
Sherriff, who turned heads with rapid speed at Bathurst last year, will race a recently modified Nissan R34 GTR.
Whilst the 1170 horsepower Skyline reached record breaking speeds in the Combined Sedans category at last year’s 12 Hour, the new, blue R34 GTR is a far more advanced race car.
The 6-cylinder turbo beast has a proper aero package unlike its predecessor and is also much lighter.
The Bend will be Sherriff’s Precision National Sports Sedans Series debut and his first full race meeting since last year’s 12 Hour, 480 days ago.
As a result Sherriff is not expecting anything special, but is excited for the challenge.
“I have not raced anything since Bathurst 18 months ago,” he told AUTO ACTION.
The new look Nissan R34 GTR for Bradley Sherriff.
“To be honest these guys like Jordan Caruso and Thomas Randle effectively drive for a living.
“It will be one of those scenarios where I don’t think I can run at the front of the field.
“We will be somewhere between the end and start of the pit lane.
“It will be a bit of an eye opener for the first two or three laps.”
On the car itself, which was completed between around September last year and January, Sherriff said the R34 GTR is a “totally different ballgame” to the red Skyline.
“This car has a proper aero package while the other one had very little aero,” he said.
“At Bathurst it was the worst thing I had ever driven from the Cutting to the Elbow. It was good everywhere else but shocking going over the top where the drop offs were.
Bradley Sherriff clocked 327kph going down Conrod Straight at Bathurst last year. Image: Riccardo Benvenuti
“This car has a proper aero package which means it is dragier than the other car was.
“It is significantly lighter and lower. The centre of the weight balance is very close to 50/50 and the only Nissan parts are effectively the tail lights.
“The other car had factory uprights and pretty much all the car was more or less a stock road car with a little bit of engine and some dampers.
“This car is a totally different ballgame.”
Sherriff had hoped to compete in a state event in the R34 GTR, but a damper issue cut it short.
As a result, he is using the National Sports Sedans meeting as a “test.”
“I entered a state event but we did not end up completing it due to an issue with the damper, so it still has not done a lot of running this car,” Sherriff said.
Brad Sherriff will stand out in the #66.
“But every time I have run it the car has got progressively better so we will use this weekend as a test day.
“I have had a couple of test days.
“I put a green set on at Symmons Plains to do a quali lap and it was pretty cold so I ended up turning it around through the sweeper down the back straight and scratched the back.
“It took 3-4 weeks to get it back to where it was now but that was a driver related scenario and not a car one.”
After this weekend, Sherriff also holds ambitions of competing in the Bathurst Precision National Sports Sedans finale in November.
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