We Catch up with F3 Race Winner Chris Gilmour

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Chris Gilmore - F3 Australia
Chris Gilmour - F3 Australia ((c)Sam Tickell)

Chris Gilmour is an Australian F3 stalwart having been around the Series for many years.  He has had success with taking race wins although, before this weekend, he hadn’t won a race for almost seven years.  He runs on a shoestring budget with his father doing most of the work on the car.  We were able to catch up with Chris during the Shannons Nationals round at Morgan Park.

Hi Chris – great race for you today, and great to see you return to the winners circle – can you take us through the race?

Yeah, the plan was to get in front right off the line.  Once I achieved that I kenw I could control the race.  The safety car came out for 6 laps after a roll over after the start.  That certainly helped us particularly with controlling the tyres.  From there we kept them at bay and that was it.

You confident going in to tomorrow – will the tyres last the distance?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I think we have a really good race setup and we were getting quicker every lap.  I wasn’t pushing 100% in race 1 and we have plenty left.

You have been driving in F3 for years, what draws you to this Championship?

Mate, they are just absolutely fun – and the competition is good every year.  We have the car, we can afford to do it, so why not do it?  I don’t think there is anything out there I’d rather be racing.  I love racing these things.  They are great to drive – you can race on the edge and they are fun to drive.

I don’t know if the V8 guys like it known that we are faster over a lap than they are

F3 is racing with Shannons Nationals this weekend and F3 has also supported the main V8 Supercar Championship – does that add something to you as a competitor?

I think it does definitely for the younger guys, although I may be a bit beyond that now.  It is definitely great to race in front of the crowds.  I don’t know if the V8 guys like it known that we are faster over a lap than they are.  Open wheel racing in Australia is not really seen upon and I think it is great to race in front of those big crowds and show them what we do.

F3 will be going back to Bathurst to support the Bathurst 12 Hour, how much are you looking forward to racing again on the famed ‘Mountain’?

Yeah – you had to do a race win to be invited so I’m glad we did that today!  I’m planning on doing the whole year next year and definitely looking forward to Bathurst.

There is talk of other cars coming to F3 – are you looking around for another car?

Nah, we are committed to F3 and we’ll keep with this one and keep pushing it.

Thank-you and best of luck for the season

Thank-you