Following a successful first year of international racing in the GB3 championship last season, Nick Gilkes was announced to be racing with Drivex in the newly formed EuroCup-3 championship. Gilkes first weekend with the team had ups and downs, but ultimately showed some strong positives to take away from the three days at Spa.
Several strong free practice sessions showed the potential speed heading into qualifying one & two, as the heavens opened up on the legendary circuit. A damp qualifying one was plagued with track limits infringements, which lined Gilkes up in P15 for race one. However, the tone changed in the following session, where Nick would put his car on the front row of the grid (P2) in treacherous conditions.
“Bit of a strange one.” said GIlkes on qualifying two”. It rained and I went out on wets, as you do. Unfortunately there was an issue with the set of wets which we had so I decided to pit and said put it on slicks for 1 final flying lap. The track was still very wet in places, but overall it was a good call. I proceeded to drive an extraordinarily messy lap but it was P2.”
Starting P15 for race one was always going to be a challenge, but GIlkes performed impressively. The tricky conditions for the race made choosing the correct tyres difficult, but Nick and the team opted for the slick tyres. A late gamble to switch to the wet tyres thanks to a late safety car gave Nick the opportunity to climb six places in two laps, crossing the line P7.
For the final race of the weekend, Nick would line up on the front row, hoping to put in a strong performance over the next 25 minutes. Unfortunately Nick would drop back at the start, and was unable to replicate the frontrunning pace he had shown the previous day. Here’s what Nick had to say on the final race:
“Starting from P2 I expected more but it just didn’t work out. The race pace on Friday was super strong but we couldn’t replicate it today. Need to look into why, but with the talented group of engineers and everyone behind me, I have no doubt we will be back where we belong at Aragon”
The next round will be held at Motorland Aragón on May 26-28.
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