Kildare: Naas driver James Roe scores a podium at Monza

Naas native James Roe Jr continued to impress in his sports car debut year as he claimed yet another podium for Imperiale Racing at Monza yesterday. The Irishman not only swapped his usual single seater cars for a GT3 Sportscar, but also changed continents too, as he returned to Europe to represent his longtime sponsor Topcon Positioning Group in the Italian GT Championship.

Roe was consistently in the front pack all through pre-event practice, giving him confidence of another good result at the famous Italian circuit. Qualifying didn't go to plan though, within the combined time format and plenty of traffic saw the #9 Lamborghini finish the session in 8th place. On race day, weather conditions were horrific with many of the earlier support races having to be postponed or cancelled.

As the Italian GT Championship cars lined up though, the rain had stopped. Roe, who was starting the #9 car, made the call to fit slicks as he felt it was going to dry. Despite initially being swamped by the wet tyre grid of cars, and sinking as low as P12, his choice was proven correct as he gradually began to fight back towards the front. By the time he pitted for the first driver change, the #9 car was running in P4. His team mates made no mistakes and another clean pitstop meant they would cross the line third in class for yet another podium in Italy.

Roe said after the race, "Maybe coming from Ireland, I'm more acceptive to the rain than most. I just had a feeling it was going to dry up very fast as I drove to the grid and asked the team for slicks. If I'm honest, I was wondering if I had made the right decision in the early laps, but once the tires got up to temperature and a dry line appeared, the car just came to me. It is great to stand on the podium once again, even better at a circuit like Monza- big thanks to my teammates and Imperiale Racing."