Paul Morris Promoting Gold Coast Tourism In V8 Supercars

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THURSDAY, MARCH 24:
Gold Coast V8 Supercar driver Paul Morris is promoting the 'VeryGC' tourism campaign on his Sirromet Wines Holden Commodore in races in Australia and overseas this year.
The campaign is a Gold Coast Tourism initiative, and Morris raced with the 'VeryGC.com' website address on his VZ Commodore for the first time in last weekend's (March 19-20) opening round of the 2005 V8 Supercar Championship, the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.

Morris' Holden will continue to display the website address for the remainder of the 13-round championship, which includes events in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia, West Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory, and overseas in China and New Zealand.

The 37-year-old said his association with the 'VeryGC' campaign was appropriate because he lived on the Gold Coast and his Paul Morris Motorsports team was based in the area at the Holden Performance Driving Centre at Norwell.

The Gold Coast will also host a round of this year's championship, the Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge at the Lexmark Indy 300 from October 20-23.

"We're a Gold Coast team with a local sponsor (Sirromet Wines), so it's good to help promote the area as a tourism destination - I live here and I know what a great place it is," said Morris.

"Tourism is important to the Gold Coast in providing jobs and generating business, and having the 'VeryGC' campaign involved in V8 Supercars will create some extra interest."

"The (V8 Supercar) championship now offers big exposure to fans at the track plus television, and the Gold Coast already has a connection with the V8s at Indy."

In 2004 the championship attracted 1.6-million spectators, and a reported 700-million television viewers through race telecasts on Network Ten and Foxsports in Australia, plus additional coverage in New Zealand, the United States, Europe, China, the Asia-Pacific region, and South America.

Morris has personal links with the Gold Coast tourism industry. He is Managing Director of the Holden Performance Driving Centre, which operates tours and offers driver training and drive-ride packages with the V8 Super School, and Sirromet Wines was founded and is owned by his father, Gold Coast businessman Terry Morris.

"There are tourists from all around Australia and overseas visiting the driving centre, and Sirromet, so we have a personal stake in being pro-active with local tourism," said Morris.

Morris is 10th equal after the opening round of the 2005 championship. The second round is at Pukekohe in New Zealand from April 15-17.