Video of race at Symmons Plains - In car cockpit view

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O45MSK2r6lo Round 2, Symmons Plains Raceway

Located approximately 30km south of Launceston, the Symmons Plains Raceway is located on the Midland Highway. It's famous characteristics including a very high speed back straight with a kink, it's extremely tight hairpin bend at the end of the main straight, and a perculiar placement of the START/FINISH line in a corner. It is supremely rich in history, and I must admit that Danny Chu and I were not prepared for the amount of history that stood in this place. With the likes of ex greats such as Graham Hill, Bruce McLaren & Jim Clark down in these parts, the list is long and distinguished.

It was a fantastic circuit to drive on and I was thoroughly enjoying it throughout the practice sessions. We built up great pace through these sessions, and qualified the car 5th, the best achievement in qualifying since the Wimobilize team was born. This was very satisfying for all of us here at McElrea Racing. From here, the plan was to stay in the hunt and manage our tyres correctly. (This series only allows for 1 set of fresh tyres for 3 races. Two of these tyres can be changed for other new or used tyres, if tyres are damaged during the races) This plan worked well.

Race 1 saw us finish 4th overall, another best for the McElrea Racing squad under the Wimobilize banner. Things were going great for the team. Race 1 saw the tarmac dry at the start but my midway through the race, the heavens opened up and the rain started to come down. The track got very greasy throughout the laps and this allowed me to close the gap on Lago, and nick the 4th place on the 2nd to last lap of the race. It was a good achievement for the team.

Race 2 saw the tyres start to fade away and mistakes start ting to be made. Off the start, I instantly loss places and from here, the bad start didn't do us any good. The tyres were going off faster than I had hoped for and I was constantly stuck in battles with Lago and Bucharatz. And very enjoyable battles at that! WE finished in 6th.

Race 3 saw a much longer race, spanning 40 laps instead of the usual 20 laps we did for race 1 and race 2. The tyres were ruined already and we were all going out to do battle again. The bad behaviour of the car saw us start to fall back though through a matter of attrition, we managed to finish just outside of the top 10, to give us a 6th overall for the weekend.

Now, we currently stand at 6th overall from the first two rounds of the GT3 Cup Challenge and 4th in class. Next race heads to Mallala in Adelaide, which we are all looking forward to. Come out and support us if you are around in S.A!