A pair of Top 10 results has netted IXL Lubricant's Jeremy "Lost it" Gray his best round result of the 2014 Australian V8 Ute Racing Series - fuelled by Hog's Breath Cafe at Hidden Valley Raceway this weekend, 20-22 June 2014.
After a disappointing qualifying run, Gray, from Denman in the Hunter Valley, was able to cut through the field in the opening and finishing races of the weekend to end up in ninth position overall.
"We had really good car speed this weekend, running in the Top 10 in practice, but was sort of off the pace in qualifying," said Gray, "we were able to make a few adjustments and we knew our race pace was going to be really good and we had a few good battles out there".
"I had a great weekend and it's been really good working with the other guys in the Team to make the car quicker and improve my own driving, and it's starting to show some solid results."
The V8 Ute Series again ran their Formula 1 inspired, three-part, qualifying session on Saturday morning, with Gray making it into the second part, for the Top 20 runners, but could only manage to outpace one other car, placing himself in 19th for the start of the first race.
"We had some sort of tyre issue in qualifying that was sending a lot of vibration from the rear of the car," said Gray, "after making 'Q3' (final 10 cars) in Perth, I felt I should be around tenth...that would be a solid result from myself, and to be so far off is really disappointing".
With the majority of the field in front of him for the opening race on Saturday afternoon, Gray's skill and experience in the category came to the fore, as he managed to avoid multiple on-track incidents throughout the entire field, moving up 11 places to finish in 8th place.
"That race was epic, that's one word for it," said Gray, "it was one of those races where if you just hung in there and stayed on the track, and out of trouble, you were going to make up a lot of spots".
Sunday's double began with a Top 14 reverse grid race, with Gray starting from seventh on the grid, he held out the Championship leaders for half of the race until tyre life cost him a few spots, and compounded by contact from Nathan Pretty leaving him to finish in 13th at the checkered flag, laterpromoted by one place with post race penalty to Pretty.
"Considering the guys pushing through behind us, we were running really well, but a few laps in we started to struggle with rear grip and that allowed a few to slip through," said Gray, "I stuck with them until an, ambitious passing move from Nathan [Pretty] resulted in contact and sent me off the track".
In the final race of the weekend, Gray started just outside the Top 10, behind the Jesus Racing duo (also prepared by the Sieders Racing Team), and with a broken shifter dropping defending Champion Ryal Harris from the race, as well as a good run on debutant Aaron Borg, Gray finished the final race in ninth.
"We finished the weekend with a really solid race, and pretty much followed Andrew [Fisher] around for most of the race," said Gray, "I was able to lap quicker than two of the others in front, so the car seems to work really well with older tyres...I should probably use old tyres for qualifying".
Gray currently holds 12th place in the Championship, as the V8 Ute Series heads to Townsville for round four of the season in two weeks time, 4-6th July 2014.
"I've gone alright at Townsville in the past, even have a race win there from 2010, so if we can take this race pace there, and sort out qualifying, it should be a good one for us."
