THE V8 Ute Series remains a popular part of Aussie motorsport history, though it wasn’t often that overseas drivers competed in the unique Holden versus Ford category.
However, there was that one time a Japanese driver entered the fray – and ended up with a very damaged Commodore as a result!
Ryo Orime made a one-off appearance in the final round of the 2010 series at Sydney Olympic Park on the Homebush street circuit at the wheel of a Samboy Chips-backed Commodore Ute.
A Ute owned by Scott Jennings – who these days manages Team 18 Supercars racer Anton De Pasquale – Orime’s Holden was run by Hi-Tech Motorsport for the weekend.
The-then 28-year-old was based in Singapore at the time and reportedly had raced Formula Nippon and Super GT300 sportscars in Asia.
Backing for the event came from the then-new SG Changi circuit and Orime had his first taste of the Ute at the Norwell Motorplex in Queensland.
“The Ute is very interesting to drive, it’s totally different from a GT,” he said at the time in Motorsport eNews Issue 183, available here online.
“There is no downforce and no grip. The feeling of braking is very different. I had less than one day to learn to drive the car but I’ve picked it up very quickly.”
Unfortunately, Orime’s one-off weekend in a V8 Ute ended quickly.
The left overs of the smashed Commodore. Photo: an1images.com / Dirk Klynsmith.
The debutante qualified an impressive ninth, but his first, and only, race didn’t even last a single lap.
He miscalculated at the left-handed Turn 8 on the opening lap of Race 1 on Saturday and was sucked into the outside wall, almost instantly smashed into from behind by Gary MacDonald’s Ice Break Coffee Commodore.
That set off a chain reaction of cars ploughing into the accident zone, a range of them damaged in the incident.
The damage to the rear of the Orime Commodore was huge and he was sidelined for the remainder of the weekend, leaving his one-off V8 Ute drive over without completing a single racing lap.
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