Round Four

QLD’s Chris Gilmour retains his position at the top of the National Formula 3 Championship after some consistent driving at round 4 Mallala. Being one of Gilmour’s favourite tracks the team headed to Mallala after winning both races at round 3 Oran Park confident of a good showing and that’s exactly what happened.
Friday’s practice saw some changing track conditions, with the start of the session being wet. Gilmour opted to stay on slicks as the team was confident the track would dry during the session, after about 8 slippy laps the track dried and allowed Gilmour to get down to business and set some fast laps. By the end of the session Gilmour was third fastest outright mixing it up with the new 07 model cars, and was a blistering six tenths quicker than his next rival in the national class. The second practice session was effected by torrential rain. Not having too much experience in the wet the team decided to tackle the tricky conditions, with a full wet set up. Gilmour hit the track coming to grips with the wet conditions and by the end of the session Gilmour was fourth fastest out right.

Saturday’s Qualifying again saw some tricky conditions with rain, sunshine and rain again. By the time the session started the track was wet but it had stopped raining so Gilmour Racing decided to stay on wet tyres as they were confident the track wouldn’t dry. With some good track position Chris Gilmour set some quick laps, swapping the lead with rival Karl Reindler. By the end of the session the track started drying and with the last two laps being the only window to set some quick lap times, Gilmour made good track position and was able to set the second quickest lap in the national class behind 2004 Champion Karl Reindler. “I knew that the track was drying and we were coming to the end of the session so I made track position so I wouldn’t get held up and it worked. I was able to out qualify Farrell on the last lap which gave me second grid position for race one. The second qualifying session was a dry track and the first real session that the team has had on a completely dry track. Understeer on a green track because of the previous rain and poor chassis set resulted in third fastest qualifying time behind Reindler and Farrell.

Race one and Chris Gilmour pulled off an absolute blinding start picking up four positions by the first turn, sitting in amongst the 07 cars in sixth position outright. Gilmour fought hard to pull a gap on his rivals, Tate and Farrell and was pressing hard to catch Karl Reindler who had started on Pole position, however by the end of the race Reindler had too much of a gap and Gilmour crossed the line in second position picking up 15 points. Gilmour’s closest rival in the championship, Lee Farrell finishing in fourth position. “Yeah it was a good race, I got a great start and just really held my position as Karl had got too much of a gap on me, but I could see Farrell in the distance and he’s my closest rival so I just wanted to finish in front of him which is what I did”

Race two and the weather stayed fine, Gilmour knew a good start was needed being back further in the field, the lights went green and Gilmour got another shot gun start, this time it was a little too good, jumping in the middle of two Championship cars and seeing he was about to get sandwiched Gilmour pulled out, only to be swiped by another car which smashed his front wing. “ What a start, I jumped up the middle as it was the only place I could go, I saw Margo and Winslow coming across on me so I pulled out but was tagged by Winslow’s back tyre which ripped my front wing off. It flew past my helmet nearly hitting me but was lucky not too sustain any other further damage”. From there Gilmour held on during the race with half a front wing, making the car slow through the faster corners. The field slowly caught Gilmour putting him back to fourth place by the end of the 20 lap race.

So after an eventful race meeting Gilmour walked away with a second and fourth Place, picking up some valuable points Gilmour to still holds the lead in the National Formula 3 Championship by a massive total of 41 points over Lee Farrell.

Gilmour Racing would like to thank his sponsors for their continuing support - PM Lubricants, Revolution Race gear Brisbane, Identity Plus, Hutcheon & Pearce at Wagga Wagga, Albury, Temora, Cowra & Parkes, Chesterfield Australia at Warren, Dubbo, Moree, Goondiwindi, Yatala, Acacia Ridge, A & G Machinery P/L at Griffith, Hutcheon A & G P/L at Narrandera and Finley and Sharpe’s Tractor Centre at Rutherford & Taree, Graphic Dak photos & All Properties Group. We would like to thank you all for your support and we will continue to stay at the top of the podium in 2008.