It is with great pleasure that the WA Formula 500 Association and the Perth Motorplex announce the first nominations for the 2013/14 Washpod Australian Formula 500 Championship.

The event, to be held on Friday the 14th and Saturday the 15th of March at the Perth Motorplex, is set to be huge, with nominations coming in from all over Australia. Over the next two weeks we will be announcing all the nominations, starting with today's group of eight drivers.

Headlining the list is the defending Australian Champion Marcus Kelly. Hailing from Shearwater in Tasmania, Kelly won his first Australian Championship last year at Carrick Speedway in Tasmania and will be looking to keep the number one on his Dutchman Performance Hyper come feature time.

Also in the field is the very quick Steven Ellement, who won the last feature race at the Motorplex after a heated battle with Jye O'Keeffe on the 22nd of February. Although work commitments have kept him from racing as much as he would like, when Ellement does show up he is a big threat, having claimed two feature wins at the Motorplex this season and another two wins at country tracks, not to mention numerous podiums. Ellement couldn't have had a better lead in to the title and will be a huge threat come title weekend.

Brad Metcalfe from Moranbah in Queensland is also making the trip across Australia to compete in the weekends festivities. Metcalfe has had multiple feature race victories in his home state and will be hoping to defeat the best from the west in the title.

Ash Kent and Adrian Haywood have both been regular competitors at the Perth Motorplex this season, though neither had the lead in to the title that they wanted. Haywood found himself going upside down in the last feature race at the Perth Motorplex, leaving his beautifully presented Plus Fitness 24/7 #55 machine a little worse for wear, while Kent got involved in an incident a night earlier that saw his #40 machine suffer damage. Luckily Kent repaired his machine and returned the night after to salvage an 18th place finish. Both drivers will be hoping their bad luck is behind them as the title weekend gets closer and closer.

Brent Lockwood is another who had a run of bad luck last weekend after finding himself upside down at the start of the feature after a number of cars came together. Lockwood has shown in the past that he has the speed to match it with the best and sits in the top twenty five drivers in the Perth Motorplex Track Championship (out of 62 drivers who had competed so far!), despite missing three rounds. With a little bit of luck, Lockwood could surprise a few people come title time.

Although they have both only run two shows at the Motorplex this summer, James Dawson and Warwick Bussenschutt are two other competitors who have thrown their hats into the ring for the title weekend. Both have shown some good speed and will be looking for a solid performance over the weekend.

Stay tuned as in the coming days we will announce another group of nominations for what is set to be a huge field of competitors for the 2013/14 Washpod Australian Formula 500 Championships!

Release by DTN Media.

Nominations so far:
A1 Marcus Kelly
2 Steven Ellement
Q9 Brad Metcalfe
25 James Dawson
40 Ash Kent
55 Adrian Haywood
78 Brent Lockwood
98 Warwick Bussenschutt