I had a great couple of races, Thanks for the organisation Dave.
Qualy - Had no real answer for the sub 1:50 gang but bettered my previous PB of 1:54.0 with a 1:51.8 which was my goal. Lined up on the grid in P4.
Race 1 - Got a great start but Bob ahead of me didn't and with the grass to my left and another car to my right I had to get out of the throttle. The result was that I got swallowed up and then compounded it by following Bob around the outside of T1. I was eighth or ninth out of T1 and settled into the race with the knowledge that it was a 30 min race and plenty could happen. On the uphill section of lap 1 I looked back to see Craig Sykes getting close and as I exited the last turn I took my eye off the ball to see where Craig was and hooked the kerb and spun. Fortunately I speared into the area where the pit lane entrance was so no damage, thankfully but now I was 12th. Oh well, If you can't challenge for the win then the next best thing is coming back from a mistake. I passed a couple of cars and saw a few have their own little moments in front of me and then I saw three cars up ahead battling with each other and gained on them quite quickly. The battle was Mark, Bart and Dave and they were properly going at it, Dave Stephenson made a mistake ahead and joined the party. I took advantage of the constant jockeying and a great battle ensued for a couple of laps between the five of us. At one point we were 3 wide on the start finish straight and into T1 which was just awesome. Eventually I got through and clear as the fighting took it's toll and mistakes crept in and I finished 5th. Martin must have thought the race was ending one lap earlier than it was, I came across theline to start the last lap to see skid marks everywhere and the gap was greatly reduced.
Race 2 - And again I lined up 4th on the grid, determined to repeat the good start but not get held up again. Sure enough the car got away well and I exited T1 in 3rd. A couple of corners side by side with Mark and I got up to 2nd. I was trying to close the gap to Dave Stephenson in first but then I noticed Lee was now behind me and I got a bit flustered up the hill. He closed right in and now rather than concentrating on catching Dave I was having to hold off the Race 1 winner. Into T1 he got very close and I had to force the car to turn more whilst burying the throttle which overheated the left front. Into the next braking zone the LF locked up and in trying to recover it and hold the place I lost the back end. Fortunately I managed to avoid a spin but Lee was now through and away. Change of plan then, I thought I'd try and hang on to Lee and see what happened when he came up to the back of Dave. Sure enough Lee caught him up within a couple of laps and from a few seconds back I waited for the mistakes. It wasn't happening though and if anything they were pulling away. Then the tell tale puff of smoke told me something had happened and sure enough I gained a couple of seconds as Dave and Lee had switched places through the final turn. After a couple more laps Lee started to pull away from Dave, who in turn was falling back into my clutches. The puffs of Smoke in the braking zones increased as it became clear that tyre wear was starting to kick in and the gap was shrinking. Behind me Martin was keeping the gap constant but the 9 second cushion was more than comfortable. On the uphill section Dave ran wide and now I could properly smell his exhaust as I closed right in. Nose to tail for a lap I had a bit of a moment before the uphill section which gave him some breathing room but he took way too much kerb through the final turn and speared off into the armco and retirement. Knowing I couldn't catch Lee I concentrated on keeping the gap to Martin and bringing it home for a commendable 2nd place.
Absolutely great racing from everyone. Steve Elson made an awesome move on me early in Race 1 and the amount of times I was side by side with competitors in the corners was amazing. Thoroughly enjoyed fighting my way through the mid-field battle with Mark, Bart and the two Daves, that was just mental. These cars are most definitely my favourite cars at the moment, the racing is just pure class with them.
