It was great to be back at Sandown again for the 3rd round of the sports car championship.
So here we are again and what an exciting weekend it was with Melbourne throwing us a typical Melbourne winter weekend, blue skies, sunshine and a dry track on Saturday and Sunday.
An overcast, cold, miserable and wet track for both races.
Python Racing has always been a team that has always worked on a very tight budget
and the ingenuity & enthusiasm of the team members. However, we were able to get a
good set of second-hand race tires donated by a secret supporter for the weekend
and with David Soar, our crew boss, making some subtle changes to the suspension &
geometry was able to help George set a qualifying time of 1:19.878 for Q1
Then in Q2 Georges time dropped to 1:18.779 putting him 7th on the grid for race 1.
Race 1 was an exciting battle with George dicing with Stephen Grove in his
Porsche 997 GT3 cup car and Tom Hutchinson in his newly acquired TVR Tuscan
race car. Obviously chasing the Porches allowed George yet again to improve
his times with a 1:17.774 to finish up one spot to 6th on the grid
for race 2 on Sunday.
Sundays forecast was none surprising with the sky opening up and the Python
having some clutch slippage it was to make for some interesting racing.
With the wet track and the brutal horse power of the Python it was difficult
in putting the power down without braking traction in all gears, even with
clutch problems, we eventually finished the weekend only dropping two spots
to 8th Finishing in the top 10.
All in all it was a great weekend and with the support of his loyal and passionate team – Danny Gibbons, Lorenzo Spadafora, Josh Soar, the “Rock” Maggie Vidovic and not to forget the secret weapon David Soar, we all finished on a positive note knowing there’s more speed in the 11-year old Python to come.
Hope to see you guys at the next race meeting in Winton at the Festival of Speed Historics on August 12th, 13th & 14th and also don’t forget to stay tuned for Round 4 of the Sports Car Championship at Phillip Island 23rd &24th of October
You know what I say
“KEEP THE PEDAL TO THE METAL AND DON”T LET THE SUCKERS GET YOU DOWN”