FullGas Racing’s most competitive showing in the Australian Production Car Series has come to an unfortunate end, Lachlan Gibbons and Dimitri Agathos retiring from yesterday’s Phillip Island 4 Hour after a suspension failure while challenging for the outright race lead.
The pre-race practice sessions were affected by variable weather conditions, Gibbons completing several wet sessions, while Agathos’ sessions were mostly dry.
Gibbons was installed in the the Nova Employment/Castrol/Whiteline/All Drive Subaroo/Hog’s Breath Café North Parramatta & Castle Hill Subaru WRX STI for qualifying, setting the sixth-fastest time.
“Because I didn’t have any dry practice laps, the first opportunity for me to get used to a dry track was in qualifying,” Gibbons said.
“I felt I could have done a faster time, but the session was very short.”
Gibbons was also entrusted with starting duty for the four-hour race, and was on an immediate charge, elevating the FullGas WRX to third after just four laps, and second by the end of lap 11.
“Our handing through the high-speed corners was amazing, and we were making big gains on all the other cars,” Gibbons said.
On lap 12, Gibbons had closed onto the rear of the race-leading Jeremy Gray-driven FPV GT, but it all came unstuck at Honda Hairpin a lap later.
“Going into Honda, one of the front struts collapsed and fired me off the track,” Gibbons said.
“It happened at one of the fastest parts of the track as soon as I hit the brakes, so it was fortunate that I had enough run-off area to recover and save the car.”
“We tried to fix it, but unfortunately the broken suspension also tore the wiring loom, so our day was done,” Agathos added.
“When you consider the way the rest of the race panned out, it was a real shame because we had the pace to be a genuine contender for the win.
“It was by far our most competitive weekend in terms of speed, so we’ll make some more developments and hopefully avoid any such problems in the future.”
The final round of the Australian Production Car Series is at Wakefield Park, 18-19 November.
