Anglesey - 14th/15th July 2007 - Rounds 6 & 7

Walderslade motor racer Mark Terry wasn't able to mark his son's birthday with a podium place at Anglesey last weekend.

He was only just able to mark it with a finish as gearbox problems cost him a finish in the first Formula 3 race and left him way behind the leading bunch in the second.

"We spent six hours in the car playing I-Spy on the way home," said Terry afterwards. "It wasn't what we wanted."

Still, with Silverstone beckoning for August 25/26 and with a top three place still very much possible and the car undergoing a gearbox change and other modifications, he will be hoping for better news in the months to come.

Terry should have known things would go pear-shaped since Friday's practice had to be abandoned through flooding caused by torrential rain.

"It would have been quicker to go round in a boat," he said. "They sensibly called it off, but I didn't have enough time to get a feel for the place and the qualifying race on Saturday was not a lot of cop for me. I didn't know the circuit and I didn't know much about the car and qualified ninth on the grid.

Not his best effort, then, but things started to look up at the start of the first race. He passed a couple of cars before the first bend, was in fourth place halfway round and in touch with the top three.

He was around five seconds back when leader Keith Baldwin spun off and he found himself third.

"There were about five laps left when, suddenly, I found I couldn't get into second gear," said Terry. "On a three-corner circuit you need second, so I had to drop back. I was down in fifth when the gearbox started to sound like a box of nails and I had to pull out of the race."

If that was disappointing then what happened Sunday was even more depressing.

The gearbox had been repaired and he again started well from ninth on the grid. He again got up to fourth when the gears again started to give him a problem.

This time he couldn't go from fourth to third and third to fourth and wound up scrapping for fourth place and finishing fifth.

Still, it wasn't all gloom and doom since Baldwin had two no results Terry made up some ground.

"There are five races left and I'm still in with an outside chance of finishing in the top three," he said.

"You can bet I'll be going all out to close the gap and make my first season at this level pay off."