Gilmour takes a pole and a podium
Story By: Gilmour Racing PR Date: 12/2/2008 at 8:12:00 AM

Queenslander Chris Gilmour has opened his attack on the National Formula 3 Championship in brilliant fashion. Taking a Pole position and finishing 2nd in race 1. The weekend started off slow for Gilmour, hitting the track with a brand new Opel Spiess motor and not being able to test in the off season made things a little harder but as the weekend went on Gilmour got stronger and stronger.

Practice 1 & 2 for Gilmour was just a shake down with the car and new motor and at the end of the practice sessions saw Gilmour a massive 2 seconds slower than Reindler. However Gilmour was confident “Yeah practice is just practice, today was really just to settle back in to the car after a long 4 months break and with the new engine we just made sure that everything ran right which we achieved”.

Not being fazed by the times set by Chris Reindler & Lee Farrell, Gilmour racing went into qualifying hoping of a good showing, and that’s what Chris did posting the 3rd quickest time in Qualifying 1.

After a few minor set up changes on the car, Gilmour top the times in Qualifying 2 being over .5 seconds quicker than his nearest rival Daniel Shultz. A happy Gilmour said “It's great to be at the top of the time sheets in National Class, we pick up a point for Pole Position and I know better than any one that at the end of the year every single point counts, so yeah very happy car felt good, however we did have a fuel pressure problem in that session so we will fix that before race day of course”

Race 1

Gilmour sitting on grid 9 (3rd in National Class) started in his normal fashion, picking up 3 spots by turn 1 sitting in 5th overall, then on the 2nd lap Gilmour dived up the inside of Chris Reindler to take the lead, trying to set some quick laps pulled a small gap on the rest of the field.

“My plan was to get a good start which I did and to pass Reindler as quick as possible to try and pull a gap and maintain it” That’s what Gilmour did until a mechanical issue struck the team, Gilmour could feel from lap 6 onwards a burning sensation through his driving suit, knowing well that it was hot fuel leaking into the seat, being almost unbearable Gilmour continued to race trying to lift himself up of the seat to stop the burning, “ Yeah at each corner I could feel my bottom getting hotter and hotter depending on which way the corner was, it was very hot” However Gilmour continued to stay on track, but ended up losing a position to the fast charging Lee Farrell. Gilmour crossed the line in 2nd place to take a podium in race 1.

Race 2

Gilmour starting in Pole Position was confident that he had the speed to carry on for the race win, however due to heavy rain the race was cancelled and no points awarded.

Gilmour Racing would like to thank his sponsors Hutchinson & Pearce, PM Oils, drivebuy.com.au for their continuing support.

Chris Gilmour now looks forward to Round 2 being held at the Streets of Adelaide Clipsal 500, also being the only former Formula 3 driver to off raced there back in 2004 also qualifying Pole on debut. Gilmour is confident of race wins to try and take a commending position in the championship.