Fresh off his race win on Sunday, Aussie Teenager Rylan Gray was immediately on a plane and jetting off to Europe ahead of competing at the Nurburgring this weekend.
The son of former V8 Utes Series and Touring Car Masters driver Jeremy Gray will race a GT Supra GT4 EVO at the German circuit. The drive is the prize for being crowned the 2023 New Zealand Toyota Gazoo 86 Racing Rookie Champion earlier this year.
Together with the championship overall winner Brock Gilchrist, Gray’s European venture is all-expenses paid trip to race at the third round of the ADAC GT4 Championship on the August 4-6, which will also feature a round of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM).
The 12-day trip will include a Toyota factory tour and a day on the simulators. There will then be two one-hour test sessions, qualifying and a one-hour race on the Saturday before another race on the Sunday.
After the New Zealand series success, it has been a busy year for Gray in Australia. He comfortably won his last race at Queensland Raceway in the Aussie Racing Cars’ second round. Before that he scored the Extreme Performance Naturally Aspirated Class A2 second at the Bathurst 6 Hour in a Ford Mustang.
He had the opportunity to sample a Supercar when he drove a Tickford Racing-run Ford Falcon FG X at Winton Motor Raceway a month ago, his first steer during drizzling rain. Despite the arduous introduction, he enjoyed the experience and took plenty from the outing.
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It is understood that he will be able to test the Falcon several times this year with an eye to entering the Dunlop Series.
Gray’s most recent focus has been the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series. Under the wing of Tickford Racing as a developing junior, Gray was caught up in a couple of incidents and finished the first round in Townsville 21st.
Round 2 at Sydney Motorsport Park was far more successful. He started the weekend with a fourth in the opening race, followed with second in the next before he won the last and finished the round second overall.
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