Friday testing was a good shakedown. The E46 M3 got shock, camber and pressure adjustments to get the Pirelli P Zero slicks to work best. But come Saturday, the desert weather was already starting to freak out. In the morning, Geoff Sykes set a blistering pace in qualifying the E46 M3 and was set to start on the second row. But an hour before the first race, the winds whipped up a dust storm, closing down the track. After some delay, the winds passed then rain threatened. “We had rain tires already standing by, so we made the change,” said Sykes. “When the race finally got underway in the wet, it was to be my big race as I took the lead after a couple of turns and never looked back, getting my FIRST OVERALL RACE WIN by an 11 second margin!”
Sunday’s weather was more temperate. In the morning race, Carl Lagoni won in his B Modified turbocharged M3 and Brett Strom came second in the D Modified M3, very closely followed by Sykes who battled with him for most of the race, taking the third spot on the podium. Sunday afternoon saw the weekend’s feature race. “I started on the front row, took the lead in the opening lap and kept it all race, getting my second overall win, this time in the dry and proving that our H-Prepared car also makes a real good C-Modified car!”
With 3 class wins, 2 overall wins and a new C-Mod race lap record, Sykes managed to establish an early lead in the C-Mod national points championship.
