Mini Challenge, Round 2, Wakefield Park, 2008

[All timing by Natsoft]

Bib Stillwell Mini Garage

"Eastern Creek probably wasn't as good as it could have been, backing up
between the two categories certainly affected my performance in both,"
Young reflected. "This weekend, I'm concentrating totally on MINI
CHALLENGE to give myself more of a chance. I've won at Wakefield in the
past and know the track well, but there's some tough competition, so I
hope to be right in there and mixing it up!"

Fifteen cars took to the track for the opening practice session of Round 2 of the Mini Challenge, run in conjunction with the Fujitsu V8 Development Series, at Wakefield Park on Friday 4th April.

The first six cars were within 0.8 sec of each other, making for a very tight but competitive field. Gary was 4th fastest with a best lap of 1:06.8234 just over a half second behind provisional polesitter Paul Stokell.

For the second practice session, held just before lunch, Gary lost a position to Nathan Geier but still managed a time almost equal to his morning session best time. Those ahead of him improved slightly, and again the competitiive nature of this series is such that only a couple of seconds spread the complete field of fifteen cars.

The all-important qualifying session was of 20 minutes duration, scheduled to start at 3:00pm. The top 5 cars held their positions with Paul Stokell again moving to the top of the leaderboard. Nathan Geier moved up three places so he was the big improver. Gary held 5th just behind Grant Denyer and Neil McFayden. Notably Gary improved on his best lap time by half a second!

Race 1 saw polesitter Paul Stokell take the win. Gary was right up there, and on the pace with the leaders, finishing a creditable sixth.

"Paul (Fiore) beat me off the start, but once the race settled down, I thought I might have had something for him. Although I didn't get past at any stage, it was close! When it was just past half race distance, I started thinking about my position and realized that I was in sixth. Then I began weighing up whether I should get past Paul or not! Seriously though, off pole will be fun, but I'll have to be on my game to keep those blue cars (DecoRug) behind me!"

SUNDAY

Race 2

Gary started on pole for Race 2 as a result of his 6th place finish in Race 1 but was swamped off the line and relegated to 4th as the lap was completed. He was involved in a number of battles especially with Paul Fiore who went on to set a new lap record on lap 9. Paul Stokell also got under the previous lap record set in Race 1 on Saturday (also set by Stokell). Fiore's 1:05.9316 was the first time a driver has broken the 66 min barrier.

Gary was still on the pace in a tightly packed field, bettering his previous best by almost half a second. He finished 6th as he did in Race 1 bagging a handy bunch of competition points. With all the drivers so close and the cars of equal performance it will mean anyone wanting to be in contention for the championship will have to finish well within the points every race.

Whilst Paul Stokell failed to finish Race 3 Gary was a consistent placing in 5th, with a fastest lap late in the race, and improving on hist starting position of 6th.

Next round of the Mini Challenge will be May 9th - 11th at Barbagello in West Australia in conjunction with the V8 Supercars.