DRIVERS REPORT – NSW State Round 3 (June 9 – 10)

Qualifying

Went out for qualifying on a beautiful sunny day with barely a breath of wind, no issues with the weather. During the opening lap the car felt quick and responsive with no major issues. However after our first flying lap, an incident prompted a red flag adding pressure to try and get another flying lap in with the reduced time left to us. The all clear was given within minutes and in the end we got seven laps of green flag racing. The new Sydney Motorsport Park extended track was an enjoyable challenge to drive with undulating turns and highly cambered corners. Turn 11 was particularly confronting with the new green bitumen surface but we managed to keep the car on the track. In the end we qualified P1 in a lap time of 1.47.95, a clear 3.3s lead.

Race 1

I started a little over cautious to ensure the car didn’t stall, this meant I surrendered the lead to Graeme Holmes who lead the first 3 laps. As the Kuhmo tyres came to life after 2 laps we challenged for the lead multiple times on lap 3, sending Graeme wide at turn 11. There was some side-by-side slice and dice from corner 11 to 13 but I eventually executed a safe pass to regain first place. After that the focus was to build a sizable lead whilst posting consistent lap times. We successfully finished with a 10 second lead to take pole position for race 2 tomorrow. I’m currently sitting third in the NSW State Formula Championship so the focus for Sunday will be to gain more points to strengthen our championship challenge.

Personally, I would like to thank all the sponsors & friends that came out today to show their support. There’s a great album on the Facebook page showing all you guys in the garage so make sure you check it out!