Gilmour Back On Podium At The Creek
2005 Australian F3 - Gilmour Racing - Round 5 Eastern Creek Report
Written by Darius Koreis
 
Chris Gilmour and Gilmour Racing achieved their best result of the season with a pair of podium finishes at Eastern Creek, during round 5 of the 2005 Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship.
 
Chris Gilmour finished third in both races, surpassing his previous best of the season – three fourth positions. More importantly for himself, and the team, Chris has now moved up into the fourth place in the championship standings, and is the highest placed of the runners using the older Dallara F301 chassis, whereas the top-three all have the newer, and faster, Dallara F304. Chris Gilmour earned himself 24 points during the round, and now has a total of 84 points.
 
Gilmour Racing, a family-run operation, is in dire need of funding, and without extra financial support the team will not be able to complete the whole 2005 season.
 
Practice:
In the opening practice session the team did their usual routine of going out to check that the car is working correctly, and getting updated setup data for the weekend. Chris Gilmour completed seven laps, the fastest of which was 1:28.5719min. Gilmour finished the session with the fourth fastest time.
 
For the second practice session on Friday, the team made a fundamental change to the rear suspension settings. Chris Gilmour later commented that the car has never felt so good, and combined with good straight-line speed, the weekend was looking good for the team. Lapping the 3.93km circuit 24 times in the session, Gilmour greatly improved on his first practice session time, setting a fastest lap of 1:26.8348min. He was once again fourth on the timesheets.
 
Qualifying:
Following the successful changes to the car in the second practice session, the team left the car alone for first qualifying. Yet again Gilmour improved his lap times, setting a fastest lap time of 1:25.4439min, which placed him fourth on the race one grid.
 
The situation was the same for second qualifying. The team left the car alone, and Chris set the fourth fastest time in the session, and would start both of Sunday’s races from the second row on the grid. This time Gilmour set a fastest lap of 1:26.2118min – slower than his first qualifying effort. However, times were slower across the board as a result of slower track conditions.
 
Race 1:
Chris Gilmour got a great start from the second row, moving up into second position behind Aaron Caratti into the first corner. Gilmour had a bit of a run on Caratti into the second corner, but Gilmour was blocked, and then Chris Alajajian went by on the exit of the corner. Michael Trimble got by Chris later in the lap at turn nine, and Gilmour dropped to where he started the race; fourth. However, Gilmour was shortly promoted back into third position. Trimble spun at the start of the second lap, letting Chris by. For the rest of the race, it was a case of steady driving by Gilmour to consolidate the third position. Trimble was catching Gilmour, but was unable to pass him, and Chris Gilmour took his first podium of the season, and 12 valuable championship points. The result meant that Chris moved into fourth in the championship, passing Tim Macrow.
 
Race 2:
Simply put, Gilmour had an incredible start to Sunday’s second race. Starting from fourth he stormed off the line and captured the race lead into the first corner! Chris held the lead for the first lap, but he made a small error on the exit of the final corner. This allowed Caratti to slipstream the Queenslander, and the pair went side-by-side through the first corner at 240 kilometres an hour. Gilmour was on the outside, so the result of the dice was inevitable, and Caratti took the lead. Gilmour had also been pushed onto the slower dirt side of the track, and this allowed Alajajian to take second away from Gilmour. Chris was unable to match the pace of the newer model Dallaras, and held a comfortable margin over fourth place runner Trimble. So for the second time in one day, Chris Gilmour crossed the line in third, and he was able to celebrate once again on the podium.
 
Gilmour Racing are extremely happy with the result in the fifth round of the season. In what has been a very trying year, success has been hard to come by. However, by showing their grit and determination, Gilmour Racing have been able to capture their first podiums of the season, and re-take fourth position in the 2005 Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship. Purely as a matter of honour, Gilmour Racing is also now the leading team using the Dallara F301 chassis.
 
At the moment Gilmour Racing has not got the funding needed to complete the rest of the season, and are looking for extra financial backing. The team hopes to find the money needed to compete the sixth round of the season, but are concentrating on finding money to race in round seven of the championship – again held at Eastern Creek, where the category will be supporting the A1GP series. There, Gilmour hopes to impress in front of the truly international A1GP field.
 
Round six of the 2005 Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship will be held at Philip Island on August 19-21.
 
For their support, Gilmour Racing would like to thank Identity Plus, PM Lubricants, Revolution Racegear and Gilmour Developments.
 
For additional information about the team, please visit the Gilmour Racing website at http://www.gilmourracing.com/.
 
Contact Information:
Errol Gilmour: 0418 788448, GilmourErrolG@JohnDeere.com
Chris Gilmour: 0438 632459, gilmourracing@optusnet.com.au