Round 2 has been run and done! The McElrea team had an up and down weekend, however on my side of the garage everything ran very smoothly.

Friday consisted of two practice sessions and I was 8th on the charts, but only 0.13sec off the pace. All 16 pro drivers in the field were covered by just 0.6 seconds, so Qualifying on Saturday morning would be critical to setup a successful weekend.

Opening the blinds on Saturday morning we were met with some pretty miserable weather. Annoying ‘on and off’ showers led to a wet Qualifying session and a wet Race 1. The car felt great in the wet, but my own poor traffic management meant I couldn’t find my groove in Qualifying, and we started Race 1 from 8th on the grid.

For anyone that hasn’t already seen the footage from Race 1, I highly recommend searching for it on YouTube. It was absolutely chaotic. I was fortunate to have avoided all of the incidents and after just one racing lap and two safety car periods I crossed the line in second place!

Sunday was a new day and with a front row start for Race 2 I was more keen than ever to get my elbows out and battle for a win. It was a sunny day, and we had two brand new sets of tyres for the two remaining races. Cameron Hill and I had a very even start off the front row and went side by side through the first three corners. I knew it would be critical to get a lead early to control the race, but Cameron had the upper hand on the exit of T3. However, with 20 laps in front on me I focussed on putting my head down and minimising my mistakes. I tried some more moves on the two safety car restarts but had to settle for another second place finish.

Ahead of the final race of the weekend, I knew where I was stronger than Cameron and where he was stronger than me. Cameron jumped me on the start and I had to defend from David Wall into T1, but exiting T3 we all fell into a similar pattern to Race 2, with Cameron leading and myself close behind. Race 3 was a short 11 lap race, and we were all on new rubber. Tyre conservation was not overly important, so everyone was going there hardest. I showed my nose to Cameron a couple of times during the race but with The Bend being such a difficult location to pass cars, I wasn’t able to make a move. I was a bit annoyed by this. However, reviewing the footage and data any desperate lunge on my end would’ve probably ended up with Hill and I both in the gravel, and after our results at Sandown, recovering championship points is high on my priorities.

All in all, I am very happy with the weekend and we now have new areas to improve on in the lead up to Townsville. As always, thank you to everyone that makes this possible!!

Round 3 will be held on the streets of Townsville (QLD) on July 9-11.

STATS

Qualifying - 8th
Race 1 - 2nd
Race 2 - 2nd
Race 3 - 2nd

After 2 of 8 Rounds

Championship Points - 225
Championship Position - 3rd
Michelin Junior Championship Pos. - 1st

More pictures from the weekend in Gallery.

Round Two Review