Posted by AGI Sport on Jun 3, 2013 in Management

RACE REPORT – AGI SPORT take the lead in the NSW Excel Championship Series.

The AGI Sport team returned to Wakefield Park this last weekend for the 2^nd round of the NSW Excel Championship Series. Nathan Gotch returned to gain more points and take the lead in the Championship while new team driver Glenn Smith got his head around the competition and claimed some podium positions for the team.

Qualifying on Saturday proved to be an extremely close affair with Nathan coming in just eight hundredths of a second behind Ian Kegg’s pole position and both drivers six tenths under the current Excel Series lap record. The rivalry between the two stepped up a notch when Nathan was relegated to P2 for the first race, but Nathan was positive he could go faster, “ I got held up a bit with traffic so there’s still more time left in the car.”

Glenn Smith was cautious but enthusiastic for his first time in the Excel, “It’s exciting. I still have a lot to put into the car to be faster but I’m just building up to it. It’s been great fun so far”.

Clouds were threatening as Race 1 of a jam-packed race weekend got underway. It was another nail-biting finish as team driver Nathan Gotch overcame a difficult start to finish just seven tenths of a second behind Ian Kegg. It was a storming finish with Nathan managing to re-set the Excel Series lap record to 1:18.424 in the process.

Team driver Glenn Smith made an excellent start to his Excel Series campaign with a 3^rd on the podium behind Nathan.

Heavy rain started to add some spice to Race 2 with drivers wondering how the cars would take on a wet track. The reverse grid start added another layer of challenge for the drivers but AGI Sport driver Nathan Gotch proved his dominance by again storming through the field from the last row of the grid to take a convincing victory in the final race for Saturday. Team driver Glenn Smith consolidated his podiums with another competitive third behind Ian Kegg.

Sunday’s weather proved even worse with rain bucketing down most of the night and heavy showers hampering the track most of the morning. AGI Sport team driver Nathan Gotch was first of the Excel Cup cars to grid up, positioned 3rd behind two of the more powerful Pulsar’s on the combined Excel Series and Pulsar Cup Challenge grid. Race 3 got underway in heavy rain & a poor start by Nathan meant rival Ian Kegg slipped past on the straight. Nathan soon reined him back, taking the inside past Kegg and two of the faster Pulsar Challenge cars to regain the Excel Series lead on turn 2.

Gotch then went on pursuit of Josh Heath’s leading Nissan Pulsar car in the challenging conditions. The two collided going into turn 10 but both regained the track. The Pulsar slipped off a lap later to give Gotch the lead. Gotch would take the victory by a margin of 2 seconds and become the championship leader. Fellow team driver Glenn Smith came home a respectable 5th place after struggling with a lack of vision after the Excel fogged up its windows not long after the race began.

Glenn said of the race: “Racing the Hyundai Excel in the wet is very difficult as you’re on the edge of balancing the car from understeer to oversteer. The rain is quite heavy at the moment with water flowing across the track causing the front wheels to spin and aqua plane. The whole time out there is a battle to keep it on the track with no time to relax!”

Race 4 was another slip and slide affair with the return of the reverse grid.

Traffic played a crucial factor in the race which saw AGI Sport driver Nathan Gotch claim 2nd place after starting from last on the grid. Team driver Glenn Smith came home a competitive 3rd to join Nathan on the podium.

When asked how the Excel’s handled in the rain Gotch said, “Despite being a handful, they are actually quite forgiving. There’s no rest time however, a lack of traction in acceleration requires a gentle throttle application and there are a few slides through puddles which keeps your hands full.”

The final Excel Series race of the day was run in drying conditions ending with even more controversy than the first round! Title protagonists Nathan Gotch and Ian Kegg went head to head in the Race 5 final and didn’t disappoint. Kegg was leading the pair in the final laps when an off-track excursion put Gotch right back onto his rear bumper. The two touched with Gotch coming through to take his third win of the weekend.

Gotch enjoyed the fierce competition from Ian Kegg, ” Keggie has increased his speed a bit but had some bad luck this weekend. Round 3 is looking even more interesting now!”.

Team driver Glenn Smith came home 3^rd to round out the podium in the Feature Race.