Bernard Galea registers second consecutive podium finish at Croft Circuit

23-year old Bernard Galea displaying the “visitMALTA” logo provided by the Malta Tourism Authority on his Area Motorsport Civic succeeded to register the second consecutive podium finish in the British (Honda) Civic Cup Championship by finishing an excellent 2nd, just 2.17 seconds behind the winner Carl Swift at Croft Circuit on Sunday.

The excellent performance by Bernard could be seen coming from the qualifying session on Saturday at the Croft circuit when he recorded the second fastest lap of 1 minute 38.61 seconds, just 0.03 seconds slower than Carl, at a speed of 76.67 mph. Things were looking good after the second place finish at the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit last month.

In the first race of the 3rd round of the Tegiwa Civic Cup Champi- onship, Bernard who started from the front row of the grid, drove a very consistent race challenging race winner Carl Swift from the green flag to the finish.

The other young Maltese driver Rodren Vella qualified 9th on Saturday, having to nurse the new engine in his car after the mechanical problems experienced at Brands Hatch. There was hardly any time for running in the engine, and in the first race he started from the inside of the 5th row.

This is the first year that Rodren is racing in this series and he is learning the ropes as he goes along. By the first lap of the first race, Rodren had fallen to the 13th position, but by the third lap he regained 12th place. In the 4th lap Rodren moved to 11th place, and in lap 8 he moved to the 10th position, but was beaten to the chequered flag by Danny Winstanley to finish in a satisfactory 11th posi- tion among 28 drivers.

In the second race, Rodren started from the 6th row of the grid, but again by the first lap he was in 13th position. He started climbing back immediately, and by the second lap he was in the 12th position. He moved two positions in the 5th lap to move into 10th place. In the very last lap – lap 9 – Rodren succeeded to gain another place to finish in a very good 9th position.

Gains 5 positions

On account of his second position in the first race, Bernard had to start from the 5th row in 9th position in the second race, because the order of the first 10 finishers is reversed in the second race.

But it did not take long for Bernard to start moving forward, and by the end of the very first lap he was already in 6th position. In the 3rd lap he moved another place to gain the 5th position. In the 5th lap he gained another position to move into 4th place, but competition was tough to move further ahead.

Bernard kept on trying hard with determination and skill, and in the 8th lap he recorded his fastest lap of the second race with a time of 1 minute 39.45 seconds. But time was running out and he had to be content with an excellent 4th place, gaining no less than 5 positions in the second race.

Bernard and Rodren are proud to be carrying the Maltese flag and the MTA logo in front of thousands of followers who watched no less than 21 races on Sunday. Several thousands more watch these races on Motors TV and on the Internet, so Bernard and Rodren are behaving as worthy ambassadors for Malta in this form of circuit racing.