THERE’S nothing quite like a good retro livery – and there was due to be a particularly nice throwback rolled out at this month’s Repco Bathurst 1000 event.
V8 Sleuth can reveal that the Thursday practice crash which wiped Ryan Gilroy and his Nissan Altima out of the rest of the Super3 round robbed him of the chance to show off a planned retro surprise.
Courtesy of a last-minute sponsorship agreement, AIM Motorsport had been set to wrap the #89 MW Motorsport-owned, ex-Kelly Racing car in a tribute colour scheme ahead of Friday qualifying.
The initiative was to pay homage to Nissan Primera Super Tourers of the late 1990s.
That included finishing second in the 1998 AMP Bathurst 1000 in the hands of Steve Richards and Matt Neal, Laurent Aiello’s 1999 British Touring Car Championship-winning campaign, and in particular the Nissan liveries in 1997 BTCC.
“It’s a big shame that we never got to do it,” Gilroy, who turns 22 tomorrow, told V8 Sleuth.
“I have actually got the wrap printed off. It’s sitting here in my shed but it will never actually go on a race car now.”
Gilroy’s season is likely over, with the Singleton product still battling post-concussion symptoms and not expected to be medically cleared for the Adelaide finale.
Reflecting on his year, which began in a VF Commodore before moving to an Altima for Sandown, Gilroy said: “It’s kind of the season that could have been, especially the back half of the year.
“Rolling out in practice and being top dog straight out of the truck was pretty cool, especially in a very unfamiliar car in the Nissan and not having overly a lot of miles compared to some of my competitors.
“I no doubt thought we would have been very competitive at Bathurst and vying for a podium if not a race win in Super3 that weekend, just how confident I felt in the car and how much speed we had to use. But obviously it wasn’t meant to be.
“And Sandown we got very unlucky, just with a couple of races I got turned around. But the speed was there in the back half of the year, the upgrade to the Nissan was very cool.
“I think the Holden, which was a bit of a harder car to drive, made me appreciate what a good car can offer you and I think that really held me in good stead moving up in the year. It’s just very unfortunate the way it ended.
“Obviously Newcastle was a big highlight, getting a podium on debut in front of the home crowd. But the season as a whole was a big learning experience.”
V8 Sleuth’s ongoing coverage of the Dunlop Series for Super2 and Super3 is proudly presented by Biante – Fuel your passion with winning model cars. Visit Biante here to check out their range of model cars in a range of scales from 1:64 to 1:10.
