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Race Report - Finals part 2

In addition to all the Gen6 implications, Ryan also stepped up into the B Final...

   

John had chosen red lane, Oliver yellow, Terry blue and Ryan was left with white...

   

Terry crashed on the first lap, which was led by Oliver, ahead of John and Ryan. John crashed on lap 3, giving Oliver a decent cushion early in race - Ryan keeping his Mega-G+ on the track but dropping half a second a lap...

   

Oliver kept his head down as those behind had more offs - the two big ones being Ryan's on lap 7 and John's on lap 11. Oliver's pace was very consistently around the 4.1 second mark, slower than John and Terry, but they had a lot of ground to make up...

   

Both pushed really hard, dropping Ryan when he had a second crash, but not making much headway on the leader. John got the closest, before a late off left his car stranded. A fine run by Oliver gave him a win by three and a half laps, John finishing a lap ahead of Terry and Ryan a lap further back.

That left us with our first championship decider of the night. Quite simply, Andy needed to win the A Final to claim the championship, whereas Pete could finish one place behind Andy if someone else was to the race win.

   

Pole-sitter Pete had chosen blue lane, Andy had controversially gone for white, Ollie was in yellow and Oliver red...

   

Throughout the heats, Pete had the fastest car, but it did slow in the latter stages - was that by design or because of an over-heating armature? Andy had a chance if he could stay close - Pete had been a bit crashy in the heats, Andy had not crashed once. Off the line, Pete set a blistering pace, leading Andy by a second after just one lap. A string of sub-3.75 second laps followed - Pete taking three tenths out of Andy each time and putting him half a lap ahead after just five laps...

   

Pete's pace eased off slightly, enough for Andy to hold the gap stable. Then, on lap 15, the chaser made his first error of the evening, coming off exiting the bus stop. In the blink of an eye, Pete had lapped him. Behind, Oliver and Ollie were having a complete crash-fest - which made the focus and pace at the front even more remarkable. Having recovered quickly from his off, Andy continued to match Pete's lap times - the gap stable at a lap and a half. Pete was not home and dry - that lead could evaporate with even a minor crash. And the pace was not coming down - Pete clocking 3.726 against Andy's 3.699 in the final stages...

   

The chequered flag saw Pete set the first 30-lapper of the night - a 30.60 - and Andy's 29.15 was a fraction behind his best from the heats. It was a race worthy of a championship battle.

   

Huge congratulations to Pete on his race and championship win. Congrats also to Ollie on a magnificent third place overall, plus the junior medal. Ryan had another race to think about, but already finished top rookie and top Gen6 runner.

Here are all the stats from the finals...

   

Of course, we still had one more race to go - the Gen6 Cup championship shoot-out.