Back in his comfort zone of saloon cars, Gary was confident of a good result in his first Sport Maxx race, but with little time to prepare and only a 45 minute test scheduled it was tough to get to grips with the front wheel drive Leon, made even more treacherous by the very wet conditions.

Qualifying was still very wet and proved tricky, with a few over braking moments resulting in exits down the slip round at the hairpin. Gary was running 6th for a while in qualifying but managed to put in a fast couple of laps at the end, moving him to a respectable 5th place for the start of race 1.

Race 1

Race day was dry and would be the first time Gary has driven the new car without rain. Gary made a good start, but was boxed in by the 2 Nissan 370 cars and relegated to 6th into the first corner. He was gradually getting used to the performance of the new Seat Leon, holding back the other Seat in the class of Dan Malone and was starting to challenge for 5th place, when Kevin George in his Class 2 Corsa had a coming together with another car, resulting in a safety car and an eventual red flag due to barrier damage, so 6th place for the first race but not bad really.

Race 2

Starting from 6th place meant Gary did not have to carry and success ballast line the first 5 cars and with a dry track he could push hard. Making a great start, he was soon up to 4th, chasing down the rapid Nissan 370 again. Gary then settled in and concentrated on keeping his tyres and brakes in good condition, gambling that the heavier Nissan would suffer towards the latter stages. This proved a great strategy as lap after lap Gary was able to close in and force the Nissan into a huge tail slide into the first corner, allowing Gary past into 3rd. The 2 Astra VXR cars in 1st and 2nd were too far ahead to catch so Gary concentrated once again on maintaining 3rd to bring home his first podium of 2010.

Race 3

The draw saw car number 7 being chosen as the reverse order, so all cars from 7th to 1st would be reversed, This put Gary to 5th for the start of race 3, with slower cars in front, but the 2 Astra’s from race 2 right behind him. Gary was also carrying 27Kg of success ballast from his 3rd place of race 2, so the car was heavier.

Making another excellent start, Gary aimed between the 2 Nissan 370 cars and managed to squeeze past one of them on the outside of turn 1, passing the class 2 BMW 120d too and landing him in 2nd place, just behind the other Nissan. With the Astra’s squabbling for 3rd place, along with Dan Malone in the other Seat, Gary was able to break away along with the 1st placed Nissan, though he was proving difficult to catch, having new tyres and little ballast.

The Nissan was gradually moving away and despite a valiant effort, Gary was unable to pull back the gap, so he paced the remaining part of the race to ensure a 2nd place for the closing race of the event.

All in all an excellent weekend, with 2 podiums in the new car. Gary is confident that with more testing and improvements to the car to come, he will soon be on the number 1 spot.