The FIA Motorsport Games moved up a gear on Friday with Team UK’s largest ever squad of athletes not only stepping up their quest for medals in a host of different disciplines but also picking up their first silver medal.

Opening Team UK’s account, Ernie and Anna Graham rounded off Friday by taking a fine second place in the Historic Rally Gravel class. Aboard their Ford Escort RS, the father and daughter crew actually held a slender 0.3s advantage entering the final stage but, eventually, had to give best to the more powerful Audi quattro shared by Italian pair Andrea ‘Zippo’ Zivian and Nicola Arena.

“It was really tough day – there were some challenging stages,” reported Ernie at the finish. “We set some good times and had a bit of competition all the way.”

Friday’s opening race action came from Valencia’s City of Arts and Science where the 57 nation Esports GT field contested Quarter Finals in the morning with the Esports F4 grid in similar action during the afternoon.

In Esports GT, Kieran Prendergast had to qualify for Saturday’s Semi-Final via the Last Chance after an unfortunate collision in his Quarter Final. Matt Caruana’s passage to the weekend was slightly less fraught among the equally competitive F4 field.

The track activities at Circuit Ricardo Tormo also commenced on Friday morning with an 80-minute session for the GT contenders kicking things off at 8:30. Aptly, it was Team UK’s team captain Chris Froggatt who had the honour of being first out of the blocks; he was behind the wheel of a Ferrari 296 GT3, shared with James Cottingham.

Fellow Team UK members Reza Seewooruthun (F4), James Owen (Single Make GT) and Jenson Brinkley (Touring Car) also had familiarisation Free Practice sessions on Friday morning. And then had second runs in the afternoon with all three seemingly in hunt for medals: Seewooruthun and Brinkley were third fastest among their peers; Owen was fourth fastest.

The first actual race for medals is for the GTs at 16:30 on Saturday afternoon and, at the end of Friday’s busy programme, theirs was the first Qualifying session. Having been second fastest in FP2, Froggatt had high hopes for a good grid position and they lived up to expectations, grabbing a front row starting position for Saturday morning’s one hour Qualifying Race in their UK-flagged Ferrari.

“P2 overall is pretty good,” confirmed Froggatt. “Obviously what really counts is the result of the Qualifying Race as that forms the grid for the main race later in the day. James drove well and I was reasonably happy with my lap, so I think we are in a good position.”

Circuit Ricardo Tormo is also hosting a record line-up of 33 drifters and Team UK’s Lwi Edwards was another to have Free Practice sessions on Friday as he came to terms with a bespoke course constructed within the venue.

Along with Seewooruthun, Owen and Brinkley, the Wrexham-based double UK champion has Qualifying on Saturday ahead of a medal showdown on Sunday. Last to start is Darren Leung, Team UK’s man in the GT Sprint category – he has Free Practice, Qualifying and then a 40-minute Race all on Sunday.

Friday also witnessed Karting underway at the Aspar Circuit, just south of Valencia city centre. Jorge Edgar was the earliest Team UK member to don his patriotic OMP provided racewear in Karting Sprint Junior with drivers aged 11-14 years old the first to acclimatise themselves with the 1.448km circuit.

Such has been the vast entry for the Karting Mini category that the 40-strong field of younger drivers aged between 8-11 has been split into two groups. Ten-year-old Austin Gibson is waving the flag for Team UK.

After Thursday’s recce and Shakedown, rallying for real hit the gravel stages on Friday morning with strong starts from the Team UK crews entering the fray on Friday.

After the morning’s first three timed sections, Ollie Mellors and his co-driver Ian Windress (Proton Iriz) were an encouraging third among the Rally 2 entries while older brother Ben Mellors and Alex Lee were leading the Historic Rally category in their Toyota Celica. Though Ollie slipped back to fourth on the second passage through the day’s three stages, Ben increased his lead. Both brothers now will be contesting the asphalt stages on Saturday.

Despite starting the day on a damp course, Mark King and Tessa Whittock also made an encouraging start in the Auto Slalom discipline and are safely through to the top 16 on Saturday.