Rylan Gray admits two third places at the nti Townsville 500 felt like a disappointing result, but retaining the Dunlop Super2 championship lead is a silver lining.
“Towards the end of the race on Sunday I was pretty disappointed to be honest, like we probably should have done a lot better than what we did,” he shared.
“But looking back on the weekend, we extended the championship lead heading into Queensland Raceway, that was really our goal for the weekend, to extend the championship lead, get on the round podium, and we achieve those goals.”
Rylan qualified second in both races, but not getting the car off the line effectively lead to him finishing in third place both times.
“Starts have been up and down this year, we’ve been struggling a little bit with clutch feel, and the clutches are a bit different every time you get in the car, so trying to get a consistent one is probably the main thing we’re trying to do,” he explained.
“At this stage we’re going to go down to Thomas Randle’s sim with my engineer and we’re just going to go through some start stuff to hopefully improve them.”
There has been a lot of speculation about what Rylan’s future in Australian motorsport will be, but this has not weighed on the Denman teenager’s mind.
“You get used to the pressure as you come up through the ranks, and how quick I’ve had to adapt and get used to things has helped,” he told The Hunter River Times.
“You hear a lot of talk being at the front of the Super2 field about teams looking at you, but you just keep yourself focused for the weekend, and if you do the best job you can it’ll show the teams what talent you have to move forward in the main game.”
Just days after wrapping up in Townsville Rylan was back at Sydney Motorsport Park where he was testing in a Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3.
“GT3 cars are probably the quickest car you can drive in Australia at the moment, in terms of G forces and how quick they are through the corners, so hopping in one was very eye watering fast, this is probably the best way to describe it,” he shared.
Rylan got to watch how the team operates during the night test session, and had an absolute ball taking advantage of any seat time he could get.
Jem Anshaw
