New Zealand-born Fawzan El-Nabi has won the inaugural BP Ultimate Wildcard competition, scoring a call-up for the eighth round of the BP Supercars All Stars ESeries on Wednesday.
The competition gave fans of the sport a chance to compete with the best real-life drivers in the business on the big albeit virtual stage. Entrants needed to set a top 5 time at the at Phillip Island circuit during the BP Ultimate Time Attack session to go into the final stages of the competition.
El-Nabi secured the fastest time to secure his seat in the #98 BP Ultimate-backed Ford Mustang.
The 23-year-old Victorian resident will race on Wednesday night at Interlagos and either Phillip Island or Spa, pending results of a fan poll.
Interlagos has been a happy hunting ground for El-Nabi, including a race win there in the V8 Supercar Online Premier Series, and with five years of iRacing experience under his belt, his expectations are high.
“It’s a massive opportunity given to me by BP. I would like to get a win obviously but we’ll see how we go. I know Shane [van Gisbergen] and Anton [De Pasquale] are pretty quick so I reckon they will be the challenge for sure.”
Of the pressure involved with performing on live television, El-Nabi said the start will be the most nerve-racking moment of the race.
“At the start of a race I’m usually pretty nervous anyway so that’s just going to be a normality but I think once the car gets rolling and the race starts I should be pretty good, just put my head down and do consistent laps and stay out of trouble. I have done it for a long time so I should be fine.”
Born in New Zealand, El-Nabi has been a lifelong fan of the sport.
“I’ve watched Supercars since I was like five and, being born in New Zealand myself, obviously Murph (Greg Murphy) and all of the Kiwis were the guys I looked up to.”
Source: Supercars.com