The Australian Manufacturers championship debut of 17-year-old Maddison Gray has proved a highlight of the weekends racing at the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit in Victoria as Lauren Gray Motorsport ran two cars for the first time.
Whilst Maddison drove the teams Toyota Echo in Class E, Lauren Gray raced the Toyota Corolla Sportivo - already driven to fourth in class at Bathurst and second at Symmons Plains this year – to a second-place finish overall in Class D.
After achieving the rare feat of finishing the Bathurst 12 hour as a father-daughter combination, LGM’s performance this weekend saw sisters both finish on their respective class podiums at Phillip Island.
It was Maddison Gray’s first National Championship race meeting after several state-level rounds in a Formula Vee, and a club sprint at Phillip Island in the Eco.
The younger Gray sister acquitted herself superbly throughout the two, one-hour races and was a consistent improver despite having no other car in her class on which to benchmark herself.
With a delighted father Mick Gray cheering on from pit wall, Maddison finished both races trouble free and recorded her best lap of the weekend on her very last lap of Sunday’s race.
With a huge contingent of family and friends present, the weekend represented notice to others in the sport that there are now two Gray sisters on the Australian Motorsport landscape, looking for success.
“I’m really pleased with how it’s all gone and how the weekend progressed. It’s been a huge learning experience adapting from the Formula Vee to the Echo but it’s gone better than we could have hoped,” she said.
“Every lap I did I think I got faster and improved further as I adjusted my lines to suit the front-drive car. Everything went really well, the car was reliable and the team did a great job.
“The whole idea of racing this weekend was about experience in different cars and we got more out of it as a team, a family and for me as a driver than I think we expected. It’s been really good.”
Lauren Gray battled a poor-handling car for the majority of the weekend, struggling for pace at a circuit both she and the team know well.
After racing with Richard Gartner’s Renault competitively at Symmons Plains, Gray struggled to match her class rival this weekend but used her proven consistency and reliability to reach the finish second in both races.
“I guess you have to have weekends like this in motorsport, every now and then,” Lauren Gray said.
“We struggled for pace and for setup and as a result the speed just wasn’t there – we were three seconds off where I expected we would be.
“We’ll learn from this weekend and move on to the Australian Six Hour at Eastern Creek, in July.”
Proud Dad – and team boss – Michael Gray was his usual effervescent self post-race and said that the overall performance of the team was one to be proud of.
“We came here to run two cars reliably and give Maddison a taste of production car tin-top racing and we succeeded,” he said.
“Maddie did a fantastic job and got quicker and quicker all weekend which was just great to watch – she was also very consistent which is a key thing to have. People need to watch out because there’s another Gray on the scene!
“Loz had a tough weekend and we just couldn’t get the kind of speed out of the car that we expected or would have liked, but she persevered with it and got two second-place finishes to her credit.
“The team has done an outstanding job,” he added. “Everyone has worked very hard and well together and I thank all of them, and our great supporters, for all their effort.”
Lauren Gray Motorsport’s next time on track will be the Eastern Creek six-hour event, on July 18.