Fresh of an engine rebuild and positive testing program at Phillip Island just one week prior, Gidney Motorsport was confident of a strong showing at round 3 of the Victorian State Racing Championship.
Despite being unable to unleash the outright speed of the car at the Island, Chris found his feet early into qualifying.
“We tested last weekend at Phillip Island but chose to sit out Friday practice due to budget constraints”, said Gidney. “But we got into qualifying with a good car. The track was cold but still fast came out first in class and eighth outright which put us on the fourth row.”
Gidney’s fourth row start provided an excellent platform on which to launch his weekend, although some experimentation did threaten to undo all is hard work in qualifying.
“We tried a new starting procedure for race one that we’d never tried before which half worked initially but then we lost some ground” he said.
Chris nevertheless gathered things up and began grinding out some quick lap times. His application was rewarded with a mixture of attrition and mistakes from chief title rivals heading momentum back in the young Victorian’s favour.
“We were right behind the Class A guys; we passed one, while another pulled in and Milligan received a penalty.
I was sitting on the tail of Dean Lillie – who’s a very experienced competitor – so we were trying to learn as much as much from him as possible. I couldn’t quite get close enough for a lunge and crossed the line in fifth. The results showed that Dean received a five-second penalty, which promoted us to fourth. And first outright. So it’s a great result for the end of the first day.”
Sunday’s treacherous conditions made for some nervous MG competitors; being the first to sample a damp track on zero-plus temperatures.
“Today we turned up and the track temperature was 0.3 of a degree!” Gidney recalled.
“The entire circuit was covered in frost, which actually looked quite picturesque. Being the first category on track everyone was unsure what to do as condition’s looked very slippery. Funnily enough we had pretty good grip and managed to have another good battle with Dean Lillie in Class A.”
Gidney’s battle with Lillie exemplified the pace Gidney was able to run at, with the remaining Class B runners trailing a long way in arrears.
The battle also provided Gidney with some positive feedback.
“Dean and I probably changed about five times during the course of the race with Lillie just edging in front. Still a sixth outright and first in class was another good result and points towards the State championship.”
The Sunday afternoon sprint race was run in slightly warmer temperatures, allowing the Class A runners to enjoy the full benefit of their slick-shod cars; enough to keep Gidney at bay but never out of sight.
“This afternoon was a bit more of the same. Dean had new tyres (slicks) so we couldn’t really hold him, while Jim Robertson in the MG Special managed to get through us at the start” said Chris.
“We still managed to clean sweep our class and record a seventh outright so banked some important points in both championships as we roll onto Winton in a couple of weeks where we can hopefully continue our strong form.”