After a great start to the Australian Trans-Am Championship, in his rookie year, Lochie is running outright third after 2 rounds. See Lochie’s review below, written in his own words…
Last weekend I competed at round 2 of the Australian Trans-Am Championship. Phillip Island is a beautiful circuit with ocean views all around the track. The track itself is a fast and flowing circuit with the top speed being around 270kph.
We had a pretty consistent two practice sessions posting the 5th fastest times in each session. My team and I were very happy with the car speed as we were the only ones who didn't put on new tires (new tires give you around a 1.5 second advantage).
Saturday we rolled out for qualifying and I was able to post the 3rd fastest time on my first lap. Until the session was suddenly red flagged due to a major high speed crash. The race directors decided to cancel the session and refer back to the overall practice times due to some competitors unable to complete a lap. For race 1 I started out of 5th and I was able to make my way to 4th battling intensely for the podium. Unfortunately I made a rookie mistake of being too friendly and moved back to 6th.
Race 2 was pretty action packed with lots of intense battles. I got my elbows out and was able to finish 4th. In the feature race I sat 4th for most of the race right behind the leaders and I was able to snatch 3rd position until the last lap where a few competitors further down the field had a crash leaving oil all over the track. Unfortunately I ran wide on the oil and moved to 4th.
I am still very disappointed to miss the podium but very happy with our outright speed posting multiple fastest times across the weekend. We currently sit equal 3rd in the championship and the first rookie as well! I can't thank my hard working team from Garry Rogers Motorsport and also all my great supporters. We now have a 3 week break until we head to Bathurst for round 3! I look forward to driving at Bathurst and have great confidence we will be fighting for the podium and wins!
Lochie Dalton