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Twenty-two racers assembled at the Barn for a memorable end-of-season Tin Top Saturday. We welcomed back Jean (of Johnny's Workshop fame) and Simon M joined us for his first Tin Top action.

After 45 minutes of practice, it was time for the first race of the day...

Group A Team Race

Twenty-one drivers (James arrived too late) were divided into six teams for this 30-minute race. Five of our Gold-rated drivers led the teams, with Jeremy stepping up to fill the sixth spot with his WHAM! Racing. Four Sierras were joined by Dean's Aston Mosdell VL Commodore and the WHAM! BMW E30 M3.

   

This race is all about track familiarisation and ironing out any technical glitches. Sadly Gearzilla had a rough time with a less-than-perfect controller and they dropped to the back, eighteen laps in arrears at half distance. The Commodore was leading, thanks to a great opening stint by Ash, the blue AST One Sierra was two laps behind, with the red MFI Sierra in third and the WHAM! BMW not far adrift in fourth.

   

Alex had hoped to push hard in the final stint, but had to manage a loose rear wheel instead. He successfully defended second spot from a hard-charging Mike, who had pulled away from the BMW in fourth. Ash, Stephen and Dean scored a great win for the Commodore...

   
   

A perfect way to start the day!

         

         

         

Straight on to our BTCC weekend simulation - and qualifying for 22 cars...

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BTCC Qualifying

   

With James joining us, we had 22 cars for a huge WHO BTCC grid. They'd be four qualifying groups and then five step-up finals for each of the three races. Thankfully we have a well-oiled mechanism in place to get the cars ready, ID-ed and on the start line without losing too much time.

Each qualifying group included one of the top four in the championship - Alex taking a big 11-point lead over Andy into the second trio of races. Oliver was six points behind Andy and one ahead of Mike - and all four drivers would have a significant power reduction in qualifying and Race One to act as success ballast.

   

Despite the power disadvantage, Alex grabbed pole with a rapid 13:099 second lap, Mike was second, Andy third and Oliver fourth - and they would be the automatic qualifiers for the A Final...

   

Some drivers had qualifying sessions to forget, but two step-ups from each final would give opportunities to move up the field and into the points.

BTCC Race One

The twenty-two cars were sorted into their five finals...

   

Pete and Stephen moved up from a close E Final - Duncan and Daniel missing out, with Simon finding his feet in the WHO BTCC field and Kev's Civic retiring with engine issues. The first championship point goes to fifteenth place - third in the D Final - and it was John who bagged it on his return to the BTCC grid. He missed out on the step-up - Rob and Matthew finishing first and second...

   

Rob continued his move up the field with second place in the C Final, just behind Terry. Five cars finished on the lead lap. There was no stopping Rob in the B Final and he followed Jeremy to the line and secure a third successive step-up. The two of them lapped all the others...

   

Rob was best of the rest in the A Final, getting ahead of Jeremy early on and tailing the four championship leaders as they pulled away in close formation. Alex had the early lead before Mike muscled ahead - a clean race for the white BMW meant no-one got near him. Alex cruised home in second, while Andy had to fight to get ahead of Oliver and clinch the final spot on the podium...

   

Here are the full results from Race One...

   

Alex stretched his lead in the championship to 15 points, but Mike was now just two points behind in third...

Alex - 77 points
Andy - 62 points
Mike - 60 points
Oliver - 54 points

That was lunch and some welcome downtime before the afternoon session.

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BTCC Race Two

The result of the first BTCC race determines the starting line-up for Race Two. So Mike would start in pole position. However, we had four more step-up finals before that fight for the race win...

   

Pete again won the E Final, this time Duncan stepping up with him. Kev's Civic was sounding a bit more perky and he just missed out. The D Final saw another close battle - absolutely nothing in it at half distance - with Jean and John hanging on for the step-ups.

   

Those two did it again in the C Final, working their way through the field and beating the likes of Ash and Dean to the line. It was John who dominated this one with his Passat, Jean had to fight his way past Ollie and Ash to grab the second step-up spot. 

   

Jean's progress was halted in the B Final, but John battled on. He was behind Jeremy and Rob at half way, but managed to grab second place, with Jeremy cruising to top spot. Terry and Simon had a very close finish for fifth place...

   

The A Final was another tense affair with some close racing. Mike had an early error, leaving Alex and Andy to escape and circulate line-astern. Just before half distance, two errors in one lap dropped Andy to third behind Oliver and gave Alex some breathing space. Andy responded, setting the fastest lap of the race to get back past Oliver, but Alex closed out an error-free race to take another win and all but seal the championship.

   

Here are the full results from Race Two...

   

Alex had stretched his championship lead again, to 17 points - and it would take an utterly disastrous Reverse Grid draw and performance to throw that away...

Alex - 97 points
Andy - 80
Mike - 73
Oliver - 69

Before the final BTCC race, we'd take a look at the Carrera Classic Nascars...