Competing in the third round of the Campionato Nazionale Siciliano Velocita in Circuito held at the Autodromo Valle dei Templi in Racalmuto, Sicily last weekend, drivers from Grimaldi Team Malta extended their successful streak.

Five cars and their Maltese drivers braved the heat wave and crossed over to Sicily last weekend for another bout of motor racing at Sicily's premier circuit.

The heat was a major player, both on and off the track. Off track, a number of regulars chose to spend the weekend at the beach while on track, engines, tyres, and sometimes tempers suffered from the immense heat.

Despite all these factors, Steve Zammit Cutajar kept his concentration. The young driver led his Grimaldi Tatuus Hyabusa to the front row during Saturday's qualifying and then drove a superbly calculated race the next day to finish second in group and, more importantly, first in class. With two wins and a second place, Zammit Cutajar now leads the class championship and is third overall.

Alan Curmi was so near but yet so far. He made an explosive start in Sunday's race after qualifying his JBR-3 Kawasaki on row two but got a bit over exuberant into the first corner and slid helplessly into race winner Michele Quattrocchi's pole-sitting Radical which luckily recovered well to win the race.

The third Maltese competitor in the 10-lap Formula race was newcomer Christian Schranz in his fabulous new Reynard VW Judd.

Schranz was racing for the first time with his new car and intelligently treated the whole weekend as a learning curve.

Luck does not seem to be on Zach Zammit's side at Racalmuto. He broke the differential on his Ralt Honda in practice last month and followed that up with a broken engine in his Westfield Megabusa last weekend.

His cousin Matthew was also low on luck, his Van Diemen Suzuki refusing to work on all four cylinders all weekend.