DYLAN Gulson’s season in the Toyota 86 Series has been getting better and better, a trend he hopes will continue when he lines up for his first ever start on his home track of Mount Panorama.
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The Bathurst driver moved to ninth in the championship thanks to a run of top 10 finishes last round at Sandown and now – with some good form under his belt – comes the weekend he’s been counting down to all season.
“It does feel real, finally. It’s been a long year to get to here but this is the one that the whole field has been waiting for. I’m definitely ready for it,” Gulson said.
“Something I’ve always wanted to do is race here at home and to do it on the biggest weekend of the year, anywhere in Australia, is fantastic.
“I’ve been around here numerous times in my own car and on foot so it’s a bit of a dream come true.”
Following a tough start in Winton, Gulson has bounced back in style over racing at Sydney Motorsport Park and Sandown to put himself amongst the front runners in the series’ inaugural season.
It’s not a bad effort for someone having his first go at a national-level racing series for the first time.
“I had the go at GT Academy and I thought it could lead to something big but after that I settled down and refocused and decided this would be the right direction to take,” he said.
“It probably didn’t settle in until we were on the grid at the start of this year that [a chance to drive at Mount Panorama] was going to happen.
“It’s been a really good experience and I’ve learnt a lot from it, as the team has as well. Coming into it we weren’t sure how competitive it was going to be but then we saw some of the names joining up for series and thought ‘this is going to be a tight, close and competitive championship’.
“It’s been good to slowly move up all year and to now be consistently in the top 10 is a really good goal to tick off for the year. I want to be able to continue that here at home.”
Gulson said the Sandown performance gives him plenty to learn from go into the penultimate round at Bathurst.
“There’s a still a little bit more to find, as there always is and as anyone would tell you, but it was really encouraging. It was good driving in those conditions too, knowing what the October weekend here throws up,” he said.
“Overall it’s going to be a much quicker lap for us here. Sandown was made of a few tight corners and a couple of drag strips. This is going to be a very different ball game with a lot of fast, flowing corners that are going to require the stability that we didn’t need at Sandown so much. It presents a new challenge in that way.
“The quality of racing, especially in that top half of the field, has been very good. We’ve had some great battles at Sydney Motorsport Park and at Sandown.”
Gulson has also been excited to strengthen the Bathurst connection to his Mount Panorama experience.
“It’s exciting to bring Close-line.com on board. They’re a global sales website developed right here in Bathurst so it’s nice to have that triple of a Bathurst car, Bathurst local driver and a Bathurst sponsor,” he said.
First practice for the 86 Series is on Thursday from 7.55am.