It was more case of survival, as less than half of the starters in rounds seven and eight of the Days of Thunder Championship, made it to the finish at Rockingham.

With lead driver Phil Weaver stepping down, Corby based Team Catchpole welcomed former F3000 Champion Duncan Gray (Worksop) to the driving strength, alongside Redditch's Mike Luck in the Leisureworks car.

Luck qualified 20th for the first race. "The car flew in Turns one to three, but wasn't happy in four. I don't know if it was me or the car. I was heading for top ten times, but lost it all in Turn Four," he explained. Not surprisingly Gray found his new car took some getting used to. "My shoulders and arms hurt after 70 laps on Friday. I have so much respect for the other drivers now and everyone as really helped me. I haven't raced for five years and have never driven a left hand drive car before," said Gray.

Both drivers were happier with their mounts after the race day warm-up, and were looking forward to the two races. As the cars lined up in the pitlane Gray had another surprise, when he became officially engaged to partner Joanne Cowley.Both drivers were fortunate to escape a huge first lap crash, when Michael Vergers rolled seven times as he tried to avoid Colin White's car rebounding off the wall. "I thought Colin's bonnet was heading for me at one time, but it missed," said Gray. From the green flag Gray slotted into 15th, with Luck chasing Malcolm Clein from 17th. They ran in fairly close formation until Gray ran wide at Turn Four on lap 18 and lost two places.

But worse was to come for Luck when his misread the pitstop plan.

"Malcom Clein was all over me and I heard talk on the radio of countdown to stops. I just misunderstood , heard pitlane open and my spotter said no! But I still pitted and then realised all the leaders were behind me and had a stop go penalty for pitting too early," he said.

Luck was classified 15th and third best Rookie, with Gray one place behind. "Working with my spotter paid dividends, I didn't agree with what they said, but they were right," said Gray.With the sun beating down race two was almost over before it began for new boy Gray, after he found Skid Carrera's stricken wreck and piled into it heavily. "He had hit the wall twice and kept going. I was catching and he went high, so I went low and he still hit me," he explained.

After red flags were displayed to clear the debris, Luck gradually worked his way into the top ten. "I chased Mark Proctor for a while, but accepted ninth," he said. It was Luck's first top ten finish and was top rookie.