Dylan Thomas has secured a top three finish in his debut Toyota 86 Racing Series season, emerging third in the final standings after a consistent weekend at the Coates Hire Newcastle 500.
Following on from his fifth and seventh-place finishes in yesterday’s two races, the Northern Beaches racer notched up another seventh place in this morning’s third and last race, finishing fourth overall for the weekend.
Thomas said the third place result in the series came as something of a surprise, but demonstrated the importance of consistency.
“We came into this weekend sixth in the points and on a brand-new street circuit, we expected there would be some drama – amazingly, all our main rivals struck trouble,” Thomas said.
“The season started well at Phillip Island when we finished on the podium, but then we had some mid-field results at Townsville where we didn’t get the setup right.
“Sydney Motorsport Park was also a challenging weekend for us and at that stage, a top-three result in the series looked fairly unlikely.
“But we bounced back strongly at Bathurst and this weekend we showed competitive speed as soon as we hit the track in practice.
“Because this has been our first season in the series, we were learning a lot of things that our rivals already figured out last year, so from that perspective, I’m really proud of the entire CGR Performance team for working tirelessly to extract speed from the car.
“There were a lot of talented drivers in the field this year and it was close, cut-throat competition, so to finish in the top three is a result of which we can all be very proud.”
Driving the second CGR Performance Toyota 86, Will Cauchi finished his maiden Toyota 86 Series race meeting in 10th position overall after improving from 19th to 11th in Race 3, and the local driver was elated.
“To race on home soil was an amazing experience in itself, but to finish in the top 10 for the weekend is a dream come true,” Cauchi said.
“The car was fun to drive and Dylan helped me a lot with in-car footage and data analysis. I’m over the moon with the result and I’ve had an absolute blast.”
The final round of the 2017 Toyota 86 Racing Series marks CGR Performance’s last race outing for 2017, with attention now turning to the 2018 season.
Toyota 86 Series – Top 10 Points
1. Jimmy Vernon – 1178
2. Cameron Hill – 992
3. Dylan Thomas – 852
4. Dylan Gulson – 770
5. Liam McAdam – 764
6. Ben Grice – 760
7. Jake Klein – 744
8. Aaron Borg – 696
9. Aaron Seton – 672
10. Tim Brook – 608
