Team UK added to its medal haul on Saturday at the FIA Motorsport Games and is well placed in several disciplines for further success before the curtain comes down in Valencia on Sunday on what has already been an amazing event.

After father and daughter crew Ernie and Anna Graham won Team UK’s first medal with a richly deserved silver in the Historic Rally Gravel class on Friday.

More glory in rallying beckons, too. With just one short medal stage to run, Ben Mellors and Alex Lee are guaranteed a gong in the Historic Rally category in their pacesetting Toyota Celica. Sadly, though, younger brother Ollie Mellors had to retire his Proton when holding fourth place in Rally2. Unfortunately, James Potter and Tim Potter also missed out on a medal in Historic Rally Tarmac with axle issues on their Escort.

Meanwhile, the Ricardo Tormo Circuit staged the first of its five medal races on Saturday. Leading from the front, Team UK’s team captain Chris Froggatt and James Cottingham started in fine style by storming to an impressive victory in the GT Qualifying Race. This gave the pair pole position for the afternoon’s medal deciding contest.

Cottingham, who had never driven the Ferrari 296 GT3 before the weekend, started the hour-long race from the front and quickly tucked in behind the fast-starting Mercedes of Team Germany. He then hounded the leader throughout the opening stint before handing over to Froggatt just before mid-distance.

A slightly tardy stop saw the UK car re-join a couple of seconds adrift but Froggatt quickly made up the lost ground and with a bold move grabbed the lead with 12 minutes remaining to win on the road. However, when various track limit penalties were applied, Team UK had to settle for silver.

“Chris managed a mega move to take the lead but, unfortunately, we had one too many track limit warnings and so it was silver rather than gold,” reflected Cottingham. “We still had a fantastic race – we will now be cheering on Team UK in everything on Sunday.”

The day at Ricardo Tormo Circuit also included Qualifying and Qualifying Races for Touring Car and F4 grids ahead of their respective medal showdowns on Sunday as well as two Qualifying sessions for Single Make GT. Whetting expectations for further track glory, Team UK athletes performed admirably in all three categories.

After qualifying third in tricky early morning damp conditions and finishing fourth in the 20-minute F4 Qualifying Race, Reza Seewooruthun starts Sunday’s final from the second row of the grid. In Touring Cars Jenson Brickley was sixth fastest in qualifying but suffered an opening lap clash and was forced to retire with damage. Consequently he will start the Final from row six.

Far more impressively, Welshman James Owen will start the Single Make GT final from the outside of the front row after his two qualifying times were combined.

All three racers now will be going for gold on Sunday, along with Darren Leung in the GT Sprint category which starts and finishes on the same day. The Drifting final will also be held at Ricardo Tormo Circuit where Team UK’s Lwi Edwards is another medal hope.

There was less good news, however, from the Valencia’s City of Arts and Science where the two Esports disciplines reached their thrilling conclusions on Saturday afternoon.

Having only qualified for the Esports GT Semi Final via the Last Chance after an incident in the earlier Quarter Final, Kieran Prendergast had ground to make up to reach the top ten and thus the Final. He had progressed up to 11^th when, frustratingly, his race was shortened by a technical issue.

Nor was there any better luck for Matt Caruana – he crashed out of the Esports F4 Semi Final thus ending Team UK’s medal hopes in the virtual world. It is the first time Team UK has missed out on making the final of an Esports contest at the Games.

Back outside, the various karting categories approached their conclusions at the Aspar Circuit. The first final was a fiercely-fought, four-hour Endurance Karting race for teams of three drivers, including at least one female member. The Team GB entry of Andy O’Neill, Jack O’Neill and Rhianna Purcocks made great early progress making up ten places from 16^th on the grid and within a few laps was battling for a medal.

Eventually gold went to defending champions Belgium with hosts Spain and UK crossing the line side-by-side for silver and bronze.

“What a race that was – a great effort from the team,” exclaimed a delighted Jack.

“We would have settled for a top five finish after this morning’s qualifying, so to get a third is just brilliant,” admitted an equally pleased Andy.

There’s more medal hope in Karting Sprint Junior (for drivers aged 11-14) where Jorge Edgar showed good pace in finishing his heats in seventh and eighth positions in what is a super-competitive 36 entrant field. Austin Gibson had less luck – he failed to complete his Qualifying Heat in Karting Mini after holding an encouraging top five position in the opening laps.

With three medals already in the bag, Team UK will be looking to add to that tally on Sunday.