Property tsar puts Mercedes on V8s grid

BETTY Saunders-Klimenko is the heavily tattooed Sydney businesswoman behind Mercedes-Benz's entry into V8 Supercars next season.

Betty Saunders-Klimenko

BETTY Saunders-Klimenko is the heavily tattooed Sydney businesswoman behind Mercedes-Benz's entry into V8 Supercars next season.

Saunders-Klimenko, the property developer daughter of the late Hungarian immigrant John Saunders, who co-founded Westfield with Frank Lowy, is no stranger in pit lane, through her ownership of a Mercedes-Benz team in the Australian GT Championship, Erebus Motorsport.

The family, according to this year's BRW Rich List, is the 12th-wealthiest in the country with an estimated worth of $960 million through retail, commercial, industrial and residential property in Australia and the US.

"I'm absolutely thrilled that Erebus Motorsport has been able to achieve this," Saunders-Klimenko said yesterday.

"Being a passionate AMG (Mercedes-Benz) customer, seeing them become the fourth manufacturer in V8 Supercars next year is incredibly exciting."

Mercedes-Benz joins Holden, Ford and Nissan on the grid, starting with the traditional opening race of the season, the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide in March.

Her new team will be engineered by Queensland-based Stone Brothers Racing, which masterminded Marcos Ambrose's two championship series wins before he moved to the US to campaign in NASCAR.

The team also won at Bathurst with Jason Bright and Steve Richards in 1998.

The team's V8 Supercars entry will be based on an updated Mercedes E-Class sedan through the company's AMG sports division that will be unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show in January.

The team's association also brings to an end Stone Brothers' 15-year link with Ford.

The Australian understands current sponsors IRWIN Tools and SP Tools and drivers Lee Holdsworth, Shane van Gisbergen and Tim Slade have also agreed to switch to the German marque.

"Leaving Ford was not an easy thing to do," SBR team boss Ross Stone said yesterday. "But as car markets change here in Australia, I felt the time was right for a new challenge.

"We will be racing a Ford Falcon for the last time at Sydney's Olympic Park in December."

Mercedes-Benz Australia yesterday denied direct involvement in the fledgling V8 project.

"Still, we want people to understand that while Mercedes-Benz Australia has zero involvement, we have given it our blessing," spokesman David McCarthy said.

"We initially said no, but robust discussions followed with Erebus and Betty Klimenko."

The cars will be powered by a smaller version of the 6.2-litre V8 used in many AMG production cars.

There will be 18 events next year, including a round in Texas for the first time.