Fifteen Plus One.

This week’s Sideways GT3 round attracted the biggest grid this year, an impressive sixteen drivers, one better than the fifteen that assembled for the F1 race at the end of March. With Molesey’s attendance going from strength to strength, 2023’s racing looks set to be the most hotly contested of recent years.

Julian and Lee were the class of the field, Julian winning Heat 1 by half a second, then using heats 2 and 3 to stretch his lead over Lee to three seconds. Lee fought back strongly in the second half of the race, driving his best three heats of the night to peg Julian’s lead at three seconds, but that was the best he could manage, Julian just too consistent and error-free to lose his early advantage. Lee did at least have the consolation of setting a new Sideways GT3 lap record, but with Julian now having won every GT3 race this year, Lee and others will need to find something extra if they want to stop Julian dominating the class.

The battle for third was even closer, Terry and Josh never more than two seconds apart. Josh had better one-lap pace, his best laps generally a tenth quicker than Terry’s, but proving again that consistency in racing is at least as important as outright speed, Terry’s greater consistency won him the final podium spot by the tiniest of margins, just 0.09 seconds.

The value of consistency was evident elsewhere too, Tom driving his most consistent race ever at Molesey, his eventual seventh place equalling his best 2023 race result.

At the tail end of the race the Wheatleys continued their father-son rivalry, but this time were joined by Mario too, whose driving is improving weekly, his ever-improving consistency starting to pay dividends and this week seeing him split the Wheatleys to finish ahead of Mark, despite Mario’s best lap being the slowest of the three.