Gilmour Racing's run in round four of the 2006 Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship at Mallala last weekend was met with promise, disappointment and ultimately a large championship gain.
Coming into the round in sixth place in the championship, Chris Gilmour steered his Gilmour Racing Styromax Insulation Dallara F304 to seventh and fourth place finishes in the two races, and left the round with 18 more points – enough to leap two positions higher on the ladder into fourth position in the standings.
While the race results were not what the team had hoped for, the team
showed moments of tremendous pace throughout the weekend, and were
pleased with the advance up the championship leader board.
In Friday practice, driver Chris Gilmour had track knowledge of the
Mallala circuit, but with a new car the team had to make a number of
changes to the car's setup after practice. Gilmour ended the first
practice session in fifth position, concentrating on a good setup
rather than setting blistering laps. In the second practice session a
number of more changes were made, including new dry brake offs on the
car's brake-line, and as the setup improved, so did the times,
finishing the second session with the fourth fastest time, and only
half a second off the fastest overall time.
In Saturday's qualifying for the two races, the team put up a
consistent effort, qualifying fifth and fourth respectively in the
separate sessions. In the first session Gilmour Racing had to come to
grips with dramatically changed weather conditions, and the car was
struggling with poor handling.
“We suffered massive understeer which hampered my performance in this
session, only setting the fifth quickest time - nearly a second off
pole,” Chris Gilmour said.
“We were disappointed with this time as we knew that we were faster than this but the conditions hampered us too much,” he said.
Further changes to the car's setup for the second qualifying session
saw Gilmour's best time improve by three-tenths of a second, and he was
rewarded by advancing a position up the grid to start in fourth on the
grid in Sunday's second race.
“ We were consistent in our times so we knew we had a good race package and could go the distance for both races,” Gilmour said.
On Sunday South Australia threw up freezing weather conditions, and
Chris Gilmour took the start of the race in fifth. He got too much
wheel spin when the lights when out and maintained his fifth position
into the first corner.
Closely trailing Tim Macrow and Leanne Tander, on the fifth lap Gilmour
locked on the left-rear tyre under brakes for turn three, and went off
the circuit.
“ The rear left tyre locked on me and was enough to turn me around and spin into the dirt," Gilmour said.
“I quickly got back on the start button, as I stalled when spinning,
but the car wouldn't start being hot,” explained Gilmour, “I lost
around 40 seconds just sitting there until the car started again.”
Having lost a mountain of time Gilmour rejoined the race and was in an agonising thirteenth position.
“This made me very mad, as it was later found out that it was caused by the dry brake offs,” he said.
Gilmour was left with the task of trying to rebuild his race, and
climbed back into the top-10, eventually finishing the race in seventh
position overall, and fifth place in the Championship Class.
Along the way Styromax Insulation Dallara F304 went two-tenths of a
second under the previous lap record and showing how much potential the
car had.
For the second race the team retained their setup from the first race,
except for removing the brake offs from the brake line to fix the brake
issue.
At the start of the race Gilmour got a good start from fourth position on the grid, and was challenging for second place.
“I got of the line well, and I was looking to go up the inside into
turn one, but pulled out as we were going in three wide, and with turn
two being a lefthander I would of been on the outside, so I slipped in
behind Macrow in fourth,” he said.
For much of the race Gilmour kept in close contact with Macrow, and pulled away from Tander.
With half a dozen laps to go Macrow's header pipe cracked and Gilmour closed to within striking distance of third position.
However the safety car was deployed when Tander speared off the
circuit, and stayed out on the circuit for four laps - leaving the
field to battle it out in a one-lap dash.
The safety car pulled in and racing resumed, but Gilmour was unable to
capitalise with a backmarker incident occurring in front of him.
“Coming onto the main straight Macrow and I were behind a lapped car, and he spun and hit the wall coming onto the straight.
“This jolted Macrow and myself, and slowed us down, but left enough of a gap for Macrow to hold me out on the last lap.
“So we ended in fourth, but overall a good result for the team and we
showed that we have good speed breaking the lap record in race one only
to be beaten by .08 seconds three laps later by Clucas.”
The team now looks towards the second half of the season, with the next race meeting being held at Eastern Creek next weekend.
“Bring on Eastern Creek! We know that circuit and have data so we are
looking to stand on the podium for the first time this year.”
Gilmour Racing would like to thank the following sponsors for their support in 2006:
Stryomax Insulated Fibreglass Truck Bodies, Campak Constructions, Chris
Nessell Spray Painting, Cooltemp Transport Refrigeration, Identity
Plus, PM Lubricants, Revolution Racegear, Campac, Gary Sturdy
Motorsport, Racing Press Media and CP Ships.
The fifth round of the 2006 Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship will be held at Eastern Creek Raceway, July 7-9.
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