Taking place from the 8th till the 10th of July at the Chang International Circuit in Thailand in conjunction with the Thailand Super Series, the PCCA weekend had started off rather uneventfully for Gilbert during qualifying despite topping Friday’s practice sessions.
Race One took place on Saturday 9th of July and Gilbert describes it as the best race of the weekend.
The start was timed to perfection which gave him the momentum needed to leap frog the field ahead.
By lap eight, he was already in third place and dicing with the two cars ahead for first place.
Unfortunately he rubbed cars with the second placed car which gave the fourth place car the opportunity to sneak past into second place.
Gilbert finished the race in fourth.
Speaking after the race, the 22-year old Gilbert said, “Race One was really good. I finished five places ahead of where I qualified which is great. And being in the battle for first place after qualifying ninth was an feeling and gives me the confidence for the rest of the season. A podium finish is not too far away, I can feel it already.”
Gilbert described Race Two as “a bit of an anti-climax” after Race One.
As the lights turned green, he once again executed a perfect start and by the end of the first lap Gilbert was already in fifth place.
However it was a lonely race from there on as he simply did not have the pace to catch the four leading cars, and finished the race in fifth place.
“I did collect precious points though and being fifth on the table with four more race weekends to go, which I believe is a good place to be in at this point of the season,” said Gilbert of his second race.
Gilbert is currently fifth on the Championship table and is just 26 points adrift of the Championship leader.
With five race weekends and 10 more races to go before the season ends, all eyes will be on Gilbert for the next race in Sydney, Australia next month.
Gilbert has been living in Kuala Lumpur for the past 16 years.
Identifying himself more as a Malaysian than an Australian, he is better known as Mitch.
He began racing karts in Malaysia in 2002 before moving to Europe in 2008.
After a successful European karting spell, Mitch went on to compete in single seater racing at the highest level.
Mitch raced in Formula Renault, European and German Formula 3, as well as the GP3 series that supports Formula One.
For 2016, Mitch has moved back to Malaysia to purse his motorsports career.
He is supported by Absolute Racing and is competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia 2016 Championship.
Along with his racing commitments, Mitch is raising awareness for breast cancer with the Pink Ribbon (L) Foundation.
You can find out more about Mitch at www.mitch-gilbert.com.
