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Gilles
Mourette made his online debut as Nascar Racing 3 was released. With no
previous online racing experience, he joined the BGN Open A series of NSRL in
the fall of 1999. Originally
running with Team Snow, then as an independent in his #89 Miller Pontiac, Gilles
had a promising rookie season. Often seen at the front, he led the most
laps (307) and managed to score a first win at Texas.
But inexperience also caused several DNFs and the campaign ended on a
relatively disappointing 6th position in the final standings, after a season
plagued with recurrent engine and connection problems.
Gilles
moved to FTRL in 2000 to run in the Winston Cup 1 Expert Division.
Gone was the independent operation, with the founding of VA Racing
Americas, a team formed with Colombian driver and co-owner Alex "The
Loco" Henriquez. But the association did not last very long.
"Alex and I are great friends, and this was to be a winning
combination, but his connections were awful and after awhile he decided to step
out and quit. Miller left too, so things were quite difficult really...
thankfully we got Homestead and Road Runner on board, so I managed to take over
the operation and keep running a single car team for the rest of the
season",
explains Gilles "
Billy (Murphy) helped with a few setups and things went up from that
point."
Gilles'
consistency paid off as he managed to finish 3rd overall after scoring an
impressive number of 17 Top 5's. "It was a great satisfaction to
finish on the season podium, especially considering the quality of the drivers
in this series... but being winless was not... from that perspective,
joining TSW Motorsports to run in Flashpoint League, was the best decision we
made this year... not only did it lead to creating Fast Track Racing, but it
helped building back our confidence as a winning team."
Gilles
joined TSW Motorsports (ultimately Fast Track Racing), founded by Billy Murphy
and Kevin Gibson, and started to run in both FTRL and Flashpoint during Fall
2000. Although he missed the first 4 of Flashpoint's 14 races, his results
quickly drew attention. With 2 Poles and 3 wins, he established himself
among the Flashpoint front-runners and contributed to TSW Motorsports' excellent
results.
"This
was really the first time I was part of a strong team... and believe me, it made
all the difference! We only ran 10 events in Flashpoint, but I think
we improved more than we ever did before, especially in qualifying... And
winning again felt sweet!"
"Joining
these guys was natural... Billy got me in TSW, we've been partners for a while
now and he, Kevin, John, Darrell, Bill and I are good friends. We have
great expectations and ambitions for Fast Track Racing!"
In
2001 Gilles finished a very impressive 3rd in SASCAR's BGN series.
Known for his road course prowess, he also picked up a win at Sear Point.
The top 3 finish in BGN qualified him for SASCAR's elite Winston Cup
Series, which he is competing in 2002.
Mourette
competes in the Virtural Racing World's Cup series.
He is also founder of the well known, and award winning VRW Magazine.
Gilles
also recently claimed the FTR Shootout's Season 1 Championship.
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