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MARYBOROUGH, AUSTRALIA. December 2, 2007. By Ben Graham
Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series racer Gary Tomkins struck paydirt on Saturday night (Dec 1), taking out Round Two of the Roosters Cup Series at Maryborough Speedway. It was a welcome reversal of fortune for Tomkins, who was leading the Feature last weekend in Brisbane until brake problems brought his night to a premature end.
“We fixed the brake problem but we came here with pretty much the same setup we had last week” Tomkins revealed. “But we changed it a bunch during the night trying to tighten the car up a little. I think that really played in my favour a little bit compared to what these guys are used to, I knew what to do for this kind of track where the guys don’t run on it so much”
After two rounds of heats, Tomkins was top qualifier, however started the 25-lap Feature from the third row after inverting the top six. After steadily making his way through the frontrunners, Tomkins took the race lead when mechanical problems befell race leader (and current Australian Champion) Tim Morse with a little under half race distance remaining. Although pressured by Teo runner Mark Robinson in the latter stages, Tomkins drove a mistake-free race on his way to his first ever win on Australian soil.
“I think that’s one of the deals with running second for a while” said a relived Gary Tomkins post-race. “Him (Tim Morse) being first he wasn’t really sure how fast he should drive it I think our car was a little better too. It would have been tough to get by him if he didn’t have problems, I was really just waiting for lapped traffic to show up and see what happens because it was going to get a bit hairy there I think”
The slick Maryborough surface played right into Tomkins hands, with a superior set-up evident from the outset.
“Some of the tracks we race on back home, that’s what it looked like. It was one groove on the bottom and at home it wouldn’t be good cause everybody would be stuck down there but here there were still a couple of guys trying to make the top work. I kept hearing everybody tell me ‘you’ve got to run the top here, you’ve got to run the top’ but for some reason it didn’t really want to come in tonight, the bottom just seemed to be the place to be”
Racing hasn’t been the only priority for Tomkins while he has been ‘down under’, with Gary, wife Sue & son Justin enjoying some of the sites around southeast Queensland.
“We went down the Gold Coast, stayed right on the beach at Surfers Paradise. We went to Dreamworld (themepark) and checked that out a little bit and tried to be a tourist. Really I’m taking this as a vacation too for my family, I figure I race every weekend all summer long and we don’t get the chance to go away and do things as a family so to bring them over here with me we get a chance to do that”
Gary Tomkins three-race tour of Australia comes to a close next Saturday night (Dec 8) at Sydney’s Parramatta City Raceway with Round Two of the Summer Slam V8 Dirt Modified Series.
Roosters Cup Round Two
Top Five:
1ST Gary Tomkins, 2nd Mark Robinson, 3rd Matt Pascoe, 4th Luke Oldfield, 5th Barry Ashen.
For more information on Dirt Modified racing in Australia, please visit www.v8dirtmodifieds.com.au
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