Chris Pither replaces injured David Wall at Volvo for Melbourne

Volvo Polestar Racing will field an all-Kiwi line-up at this weekend’s non-championship V8 Supercars round at Albert Park in Melbourne, with David Wall missing the race on medical advice, and will be replaced by 28-year-old Chris Pither.

Pither last raced in the V8 Supercars Championship during the endurance rounds last season, sharing the #23 Britek Motorsport Holden with Dale Wood.

“We looked at his [Pither’s] history – he’s shown some quite good results and reasonably good car speed. Only time will tell if he’s up to it. But given the time-span we had to operate in for our sponsors and fans it was something we could do,” said team principal Garry Rogers to v8supercars.com.

“We could’ve withdrawn the car [without penalty] but when you have access to people who can do the job … the best thing to do is get someone in there who we think can do the job quite well.”

Wall, who suffered the burn during the first race at last week’s round at Adelaide, but was able to continue through races two and three, is disappointed to miss the Formula 1 support event this weekend.

“I’ve just got to concentrate on getting better for Tasmania,” he said to v8supercars.com. “I will know more later this week. Chris is a good guy, he’s fast, he’ll do a good job. Not worried about that at all and I’m sure he’ll do it justice on the weekend.

“It’s just a shame to miss one of the biggest races of the year – I’ll be at home with a pillow under my leg watching.”