BATHURST driver Dylan Gulson headed to Sandown last weekend hoping for a top 10 finish in at least one of his three Toyota 86 series races.
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He managed to do so in every race.
It was an excellent result for Gulson considering it was his first time seeing the Victorian track.
Gulson has also propelled himself up to ninth in the championship coming into his home round at Mount Panorama.
In the final race I dropped two spots but I was happy to bring the car back cleanly. Racing in that rain was a good experience, especially coming into Bathurst."
- Dylan Gulson
“I got in the top 10 for all my races with a tenth, seventh and a ninth. I didn’t expect to do that well, especially at Sandown of all places,” Gulson said.
“I’m on top of the world. It’s great to be up that high and the quality of racing inside that top 10 is a lot higher.”
Gulson came into the race on the back of a top 10 result in the previous round at Sydney Motorsport Park, giving him confidence he could repeat that performance.
Little did he know that he’d manage it three times in a row.
The weekend threatened to be a difficult affair for the Bathurst driver after he had to start his opening race further down the grid than he would have liked.
However, with some solid racing in both wet and dry conditions, he recovered well.
Gulson said achieving such a result while taking on some of Australia’s best-known motor sport identities is a special feeling.
“We only qualified in 17th but got back up towards the front with a few good moves,” he said.
“It was clean racing on our behalf with no incidents all weekend. I managed to just get ahead of Leanne Tander in that last race. It was a great battle.
“Steven Johnson, Tony Longhurst and Leanne Tander were the three invited drivers for the round. It’s great to be able to not only race against them but be able to chat to them over the weekend.”
Gulson and the rest of the field were thrown a curveball for Sunday’s final race of the round: Rain.
The Bathurst man managed to stay out of trouble in the testing conditions, weather which he believes gives him a confidence boost going to his home track.
“It was good all weekend up until Sunday. On Sunday it was wet and was greasy. I’ve never raced in the wet so I was a bit nervous at the start and there were a few guesses when it came to setup,” he said.
“In the final race I dropped two spots but I was happy to bring the car back cleanly. Racing in that rain was a good experience, especially coming into Bathurst.
"We probably ended up going for too wet of a setup, which probably lost us one of those two spots. I’m still so happy with how we did.”
Gulson finished the weekend his a fastest lap of one minute and 27.6769 seconds, which he achieved in race two.