WHAT pulls to the left, then to the right and gets about 100 votes to the kilometre A politician’s car or, more directly, the
Prime Minister’s infamous ute at the centre of the Utegate scandal. The Mazda ute raised about $5000 for sick children at the round at Queensland Raceway in Ipswich yesterday. Brisbane car dealer John Grant, who loaned the vehicle to Kevin Rudd for his election campaign, said it would now appear at the in the Riverina, the Bathurst 1000 race and then be auctioned off for charity and retired to the Australia Motor Museum in Sydney. “Finally the ute has turned the corner and is generating some good,” Mr Grant said. Patron and Ipswich Mayor drove the winners around, cracking one-liners: “It used to pull to the left, then the right, but it steers straight now the tyres are full of politicians’ hot air.” V8 Supercar fans gave the ute a warm welcome as they braved 34C ambient temperature and about 42C track temperature.
Track owner John Tetley said attendances were down about 20 per cent on last year to 48,986.