Race Report Part 2 - Finals
Racers had a brief pause between the heats and finals as race control had to manually input the qualifying list into the software. That done, lanes chosen - and we were ready to race!
The
F Final was a three-battle between the club cars of Harry and Alan, plus Ollie's borrowed Ford Fusion. Rumour has it, the youngster will have his own cars for next time. This time, it was the legendary blue club car that led from start to finish - Alan getting through the tricky infield switchback more smoothly that the others. It was certainly close to begin with, but Ollie lost loads of time when the motor in his Mega-G+ popped out - and when Harry pushed hard to catch his dad, he just had too many offs. As always, a good learning experience on what was a challenging circuit - especially for a first race!
Alan stepped up into yellow lane for the
E Final and took the blue club car with him - the only Mega-G+ amongst three Super-G+ Nascars. This was another race led from start to finish. It wasn't a repeat performance from Alan - he crashed on the first lap. So did Aiden - lengthy repairs putting him right out of contention. Daniel had a tricky start too, still plugging in his controller as the lights went green! That might suggest Mike was handed victory, but he certainly made the most of his good fortune - banging in 30 laps with just one off, in what would be the fifth highest score of all the finalists. Daniel fought back to clinch runner-up spot ahead of Alan and Aiden.
Mike was up against three Mega-G+ cars in the
D Final - Isaac, Kevin and Laurence had their eyes on stepping-up and challenging Ash for tonight's Gen6 honours. The opening laps were extremely close - Isaac leading lap one, Kevin first through the line for the next two - all the time, Mike and Laurence were following right behind. Kev binned it on lap four, his bodyshell came off and he dropped back several laps. Isaac now led Laurence, both having gapped Mike. It continued like this until a couple of scrappy laps let Laurence get in front. Isaac recovered well, re-passed Laurence - who also had a bodyshell moment after an off and ended up falling behind both Kevin and Mike. Definitely the best final so far.
The
C Final saw the Gen6 showdown between Ash and Isaac - plus Deborah and Pete gunning for the win and a step-up. Deborah's hopes were dashed early on. Her car hadn't sounded great all night - and it wasn't improved by a first lap off. Two laps later, the car stopped and wouldn't re-start - it was race over. It wasn't a great start for Pete either - only moving up to third when Deborah retired - or Isaac, who has a scrappy first few laps. That left Ash out front by a country mile - could he keep it going? Pete's Super-G+ was much quicker - half a second quicker than Ash most laps. However, the pattern of the race was that Pete caught up and then crashed, falling back again. This yo-yo race continued right to the end, Pete finally passing Ash with less that 20 seconds to go. Ash had an off, but Pete then managed to keep it error-free to the line. Ash had the consolation of the Gen6 victory and a guaranteed place in November's play-off. Isaac had already clinched yet another junior medal.
Pete had a crack at yellow in the
B Final - a lane he'd not liked at all in the heats. He was up against Oliver, Matthew and Keith who'd all just missed out on a top-three qualification - and all wanted to step up and have a crack at the overall race win. It was another awesome start to a final - all four cars circulating in close formation. And they weren't leaving anything in the locker - those lap times were fast. Matthew, Oliver and Keith swapped the lead in those early stages. Pete had a couple of scrappy laps around 30 seconds into the race. Oliver was next to slip up, leaving an intense battle between Keith in white and Matthew in blue. We were heading towards a gripping final minute, when Matthew's car crashed and the chassis and body clip parted company - he'd eventually get back in the race, but a long way adrift in last place. Keith drove a faultless race, putting in 33 laps - four laps ahead of Oliver.
Keith's stars aligned perfectly in the
A Final - remaining in white lane. He was most definitely a contender for the win - and when Jerome and then Andy had early offs, victory was in his hands. Terry just pipped the others to lead the first lap, but then Keith took over. More mayhem for Jerome dropped him to the back, Terry and Andy fighting for second place until Terry had a scrappy couple of laps. The pivotal moments of the race came as we approached halfway - Andy had a second off, but then almost immediately Keith had his first. With a slightly quicker car and marginally the faster lane, Andy found himslef right behind Keith and overtook on lap 15. Andy pulled out a tiny advantage of less than a second - and that's where the gap stabilised. It was high-pressure racing for both hunter and hunted - and exciting to watch. That pressure continued until lap 23, when Keith crashed for a second time. Andy could breathe again and eased off just a fraction - the margin at the finish was 2.8 seconds, despite a last-lap scare when Jerome crashed right across his lane. It was Andy's first A final win since January 2020. Keith was happy with his haul of championship points, which he hadn't expected after qualifying. Behind the top two, Jerome pipped Terry to third - both finishing on 30 laps...
That left most of the field delighted with the evening's achievement, others pondering what could have been. Isaac and Andy picked up the race medals, Ash winning the Gen6 Cup competition and Isaac beating Kevin and Laurence to maximum points in the Rookie of the Year table. All the updated championship tables will follow later - we're certainly getting close to the business end of the season.
A big thank you to everyone who came along for a typically laid-back, but highly-exciting summer holiday race. Despite a few technical challenges, we didn't finish too late. Thanks to Oliver and Daniel for stepping in and giving Ash and Andy a breather on race control. As always, massive thanks to the set-up crew and to everyone who stayed behind to pack away. Keep an eye out for the video a bit later today.
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