It was another eventful day on Sunday to complete the weekend at Hamptin Downs for Round 3 of the Toyota Racing Series.
First for the day was Qualifying 2 which would determine the grid for Race 4 later in the day, with the grid for Race 3 being decided by the finishing positions from Race 2.
Qualifying went really well and I managed to put in a 1:00.2 which was enough for P5 which would have been my second top 5 for the round qualifying following in from the P4 on Saturday. However, a problem with the rain light on my car triggered an electrical glitch which meant a number of my final laps did not register with the timing system. Race control noticed in time to manually record my last lap of 1:00.3 which put me in P8. Even though my onboard data and the onboard camera registered my faster lap at exactly the same time, the officials at the event would not take that into consideration.
It was another eventful day on Sunday to complete the weekend at Hamptin Downs for Round 3 of the Toyota Racing Series.
First for the day was Qualifying 2 which would determine the grid for Race 4 later in the day, with the grid for Race 3 being decided by the finishing positions from Race 2.
Qualifying went really well and I managed to put in a 1:00.2 which was enough for P5 which would have been my second top 5 for the round qualifying following in from the P4 on Saturday. However, a problem with the rain light on my car triggered an electrical glitch which meant a number of my final laps did not register with the timing system. Race control noticed in time to manually record my last lap of 1:00.3 which put me in P8. Even though my onboard data and the onboard camera registered my faster lap at exactly the same time, the officials at the event would not take that into consideration.
Race 3 I started well from my P8 position on the grid and for the first few laps I was holding down 7th as the race settled down. Mid race Kotaka got a run on me down the straight and we battled for a while before he made a move around the outside stick. As I was held out of position another was able to come through with him which put me to P9. Later though, I made a move on Hyman to take back 8th and then stretched a bit of a gap to be able to hold that position to the end of the race.
Race 4 I once again got away to a really good start from my position I was finally allocated in Qualifying of P8. For the first half of the race I was in P7 and battling closely with a group fighting for 7th, 6th, 5th and 4th, and none of us too far behind those ahead. I was just shaping up to make a number of moves on Ptacek in front of me when heading into the downhill sweeper he touched Hyman who was in front of him turning him around directly in front of us. This was an extremely close call as I darted right to avoid the spinning Hyman and then was able to get around him off the edge of the track.
In the process, a couple of drivers were able to get through, but I was very pleased with my race overall as I managed to come back and finish in 7th place.
Overall this has been a very strong event for me, forcing my way into the top 6 regularly in practice, then qualifying 4th and 5th and racing well throughout. Obviously I had some misfortune along the way, but none of that was in my control and I am feeling very confident with the steps we have made forward and am really looking forward to continuing this positive trajectory into the next round.
Thank you to Bruin and all the team at MTEC Motorsport, especially my immediate team of David, Thomas and Harry. Thanks to my mentor and Fortec team boss Mick Kouros, and of course my fantastic sponsors Lazersafe, High Energy Services, Online Logistics Solutions, Edith Cowan University, The Wealth Designers (TWD), Grand Toyota, Fullworks Firesafety, Rvend, Inspired Insurance Services, Walker Wayland WA, Signarama Joondalup, F45 Hillarys, Trizone and Focused Recruitment.
Thank you as always to my amazing team of investors who are behind my racing, and thanks of course to everyone who has supported me online over the weekend.
Looking forward to Taupo next. On track from Thursday!
