[woodcote]

       

Ten cars took part in the Legends pairs race, nine pairs and a three - Matthew sharing with Harry for the qualifier and then Alan would take over. Each of the five-car qualifiers was five minutes long, the quick-fire race punctuated at half-way with a driver change in the pits - perfect timing for a re-fuel and new tyres. The first heat saw Alex and Ed take the chequered flag with 19 laps - Andy and Ash, plus Matthew and Harry finishing a lap back on 18. Dean and Bobby scored 17 laps and Keith and Mike McCann 16...

Heat two was disastrous for hot favourites Mike and Jeremy - their red Chevy stopped after just 5 laps. Mike was quickly under the hood and re-soldering a broken wire - but would he do it in time for the semi-final? Meanwhile, this turned out to be a quicker race than the first - Oliver and Ryan managed 20 laps with their Ford, Simon and Oli 19, with two pairs - Pete & Jerome and Terry & Aiden - on 18 laps. Fastest race lap would separate the pairs on the same number of laps, determining the four who'd go directly to the Feature Race and those who'd have to battle it out in the Semi for two step-up places...

       

The gold Ford was unable to start the semi-final, meaning Alan missed out on a drive. However, Mike had fixed his car in time to take to the grid. The remaining five pairs battled over eight minutes for the right to race again. Two pairs fell away, leaving Dean and Bobby to challenge the front two cars - Pete & Jerome and Mike & Jeremy. At the line, Pete and Jerome's Gulf car was the winner by the slimmest of margins - nine fewer seconds in the pits making all the difference. Dean and Bobby were a lap back, with Andy and Ash just beating Mike and Keith to fourth.

       

That left the prospect of an exciting final - although Pete and Jerome's car failed to fire up properly on the start line and retired. The five remaining cars circulated on the same lap for the opening few minutes. Coming up to the driver change, Mike had a very slim lead over Ed and Ryan, with Simon and Aiden just a lap back. However, the pit stops proved crucial - Oliver now leading Alex and Terry, an iffy stop by Mike dropping Jeremy a lap back, with Oli snapping at his rear bumper. The second driver of each pair settled into a rhythm, Alex passing Oliver and Oli leading Jeremy and Terry - the two battles would be for the win and for third. Alex was the last of the drivers to make a final pit stop - and it was almost disaster, Oliver eating up most of a near-two-lap advantage. The final 60 seconds saw Oliver close the remaining gap, but it wasn't quite enough... Alex crossed the line a few feet ahead to take the win...

       

Huge congrats to Ed and Alex on their win - and to Ryan and Oliver for an exciting challenge. Behind them, Jeremy got ahead of Oli to finish third, Terry just behind Oli in fifth...

   

Big thanks to everyone who came along and helped make it such an enjoyable evening of digital racing at the Barn. Special thanks - as always - goes to the set-up and tear-down crews and to the race control team, who had a busy night. Our next digital racing is a Digital Saturday at the end of June, but we are back at the Barn in two weeks for a Jubilee F1 race - followed by the five-day holiday weekend.

A video of yesterday evening - plus updated championship tables - will follow...