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BTCC Race Three & Championship Standings

This reverse-ish grid final part of the BTCC simulation started with a humdinger between Stephen and Ollie in the D Final, both of whom were keen to add to their points tallies from the first two races. Inseparable at half distance, Ollie was lapping really quickly and finding some consistency... it was a case of Stephen holding on...

   

It continued in a similar vein for the remaining 8 laps, Stephen eventually prevailing and both stepping-up to meet again in the C Final. Meanwhile, Dylan and Gareth were fighting Daniel and Duncan for the final championship point on offer - for fifteenth place. Both Winslades were on better form after good team race performances, but missed out on points as Duncan grabbed third. Again the weather outside was Damp rather than wet, so all six drivers chose Intermediate tyres.

   

Alex was starting from pole in the C Final and had full success ballast, but he certainly had his sights on going as far in this race as he could. The first task was to get past some useful racers, who'd all scored decently in the opening two races and none had any power restrictions. All but Ollie had chosen Soft tyres for this one. It was Alex-Terry-Rob-Stephen at half way, Alex looking good for the step-up and a good scrap going on for that second spot. Ollie had lost touch with the bunch and Dean's Civic was in a bad way. By the end, Alex had romped home, a lap ahead of Terry and two laps ahead of Stephen and Rob.

   

The B Final had all the top guys from the earlier races - and there were only two spaces to step-up into the feature race. That's the beauty of the reverse grid. Tension was high and the six were split between Soft and Intermediate tyres - Ryan, Jeremy and Alex on Softs, Andy, Mike and Terry on Inters. The turning point of the race came early, with Terry trying to grab his ailing car and knocking off half the field in the process. The main victim was Alex, who had picked his way perfectly through the field, but whose car was now left stranded on the floor. Furious, but sparked into action, Alex got going again and tried to recover as best he could. At 8 laps, Mike led Andy and Jeremy, with Ryan - having also lost ground in the mix-up - fourth and Alex fifth. Both Ryan and Alex were driving hard. Ryan had lost less time and managed to pick off Andy after an off and then pressure Jeremy for second. Two more passes gave Ryan a fabulous victory and a guaranteed step-up. Mike beat Jeremy and Andy to the second spot, Alex was closing rapidly in fifth. All five cars finished on the same lap... Having seen his chances evaporate for a possible triple BTCC win - an extremely rare feat - Alex was not a happy man. Thankfully, he and Terry were able to talk and clear the air.

   

The drama continued in the A Final, although for all the right reasons. Simon led from pole with the new shape Scalextric Civic - Matthew following him off the front row of the grid. Mike was soon carving his way through the reverse-grid field and Ryan was close behind. Next was Pete, then Ash, Simon and Matthew. By half distance, the race had split into a cat and mouse chase for the win - Ryan shadowing Mike - and a four-way scrap for the final podium spot, Pete still holding that third spot. As the end of the race approached, Ryan gradually reduced a two-metre gap down to a metre and then - with a lap to go - just a few car lengths. Ryan put Mike under intense pressure on that final lap - Mike didn't know whether to block or follow his preferred racing line. At the penultimate loop, Mike chose to lane change to the outside of a Radius-2 left-hander... and Ryan made a lunge on the inside. It was a perfect BTCC move - Ryan nerfed Mike, the impact keeping him in the slot and going through to win Race Three! Mike's car was left stranded in the barriers and he had to make do with runners-up spot. He was still rather bemused on the podium...

   

Huge congrats to Ryan on a well-deserved BTCC win - and also to Ash for third place, having beaten Pete to the podium and finishing on the same lap as Ryan and Mike. Great to see an MG on a WHO BTCC podium!

   
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Those results mean the WHO BTCC points table looks like this at the halfway point of the six-race competition...

   

That is really close going into next month's finale on the NerdBarnRing.

Thanks to a slick operation on Race Control, we were now looking at the final races of the day - Muscle Car Mondiale - and only 15 minutes behind schedule...