Hard road ahead for Top Gear Aussies as Shane Jacobson has big shoes to fill

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Hard road ahead for Top Gear Aussies as Shane Jacobson has big shoes to fill

Colin Vickery From: The Courier-Mail October 13, 2010 12:00AM

SHANE Jacobson has some mighty big shoes to fill. The comedian, best known for his starring role in movie Kenny, has become Australia's answer to Jeremy Clarkson.

Jacobson heads up the retooled version of Top Gear Australia. Race driver Steve Pizzati and Top Gear magazine editor Ewen Page round out the team.

The trio met their British counterparts -- Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond -- on the Top Gear Ashes Special.

Now Jacobson, Pizzati and Page will go it alone for four Aussie-only episodes.

Jacobson hopes Nine's Top Gear Australia is more successful than the SBS version, which debuted to 933,000 viewers in September 2008 but had about as much polish as a Leyland P76.

Pizzati has been retained from the SBS show, which also featured Charlie Cox, Warren Brown and James Morrison.

The solid ratings for the Ashes special -- more than 1.5 million viewers nationally -- suggests Nine's version will be more successful.

Jacobson, who has a CAMS race licence, originally thought Nine wanted him to appear as one of the celebrities in the Stars in Reasonably Priced Cars segment. He was shocked when executives said they wanted him as a host.

Jacobson is aware of the dangers of copying the UK Top Gear too slavishly.

"The biggest mistake would be going into it to be one of those (Clarkson/May/Hammond) individually," he says.

"I can't be Jeremy Clarkson. If I tried to be him instead of being myself we'd be shot.

"Their chemistry has built up over a long period of time. We can't be a tribute band."

Nine's Top Gear Australia will include many of the wild stunts that made the UK original so popular.

The trio will try to sail on Lake Eyre, attempt to rock a baby to sleep in a V8, hitch up cheap caravans for a "grey nomads" retirement motoring journey, and tackle some of New Zealand's most dangerous roads in a Race to the Sky-type challenge.

Cricket superstar and car buff Shane Warne will make a guest appearance road testing a British supercar at Silverstone.

Celebrity test drivers will include Lisa McCune (Sea Patrol), cricketer Michael Clarke, rocker Jimmy Barnes and The Chaser comedy team.

Jacobson dismisses talk that any Aussie Top Gear is redundant. He has a point -- this year's 15th season of the UK show had only six episodes. That has to leave fans wanting more -- and the Aussie version will fill the void.

"It (Top Gear Australia) doesn't replace the UK one -- we're an addition to it," Jacobson says.

He hopes Top Gear Australia will last for years and he'll happily be there for the ride.

"Working on this show is like getting paid to do your hobby," he says.

Top Gear Australia, Channel 9, Tuesday, 7.30pm

Only 4 episodes!!! Lets hope they are good !!!