Finals - Part 1
We started the second part of the evening with Ozzy and Kevin lining up in the
F final...
Both had navigated their first night learning-curve rather well in the heats, but Ozzy handed Kevin a half-lap head-start when the blue club car stalled on the line. The misfortune definitely stirred up Ozzy as he came back at an impressive pace, passing Kevin just before the start of third lap...
Kevin was keeping things clean in the outside lane, hoping Ozzy's faster pace would be a recipe for disaster. The blue car did have a couple of excursions off track, but stayed in the lead. Sadly for Kevin, his one crash of the final was a big one - body and axle requiring lengthy attention. That gave Ozzy the win by a rather flattering seven laps...
Ozzy moved from the favoured blue lane to the tricky inside yellow lane for the
E Final...
He lined up against Dylan and Isaac's Super-Gs and Kevin's Mega-G+ in a fierce battle for the step-up. Isaac and Dylan were particularly keen, as it would give them a crack at Ollie for the Junior medal - and Isaac a chance of the Junior Nascar title. It was Dylan who led the first lap, Kevin having a big crash which wrecked his race. Dylan crashed on lap two, leaving Ozzy just ahead of Isaac...
A brilliant two-way battle unfolded - Ozzy keeping the yellow club car just ahead of Isaac's Super-G in blue lane. The gap ebbed and flowed and everyone was transfixed - could Ozzy hang on to the end? Is was getting very close, but it was a crash for Ozzy that let Isaac through with about twenty-five seconds to go. Ozzy came back with some fast laps, closing the gap down again to the smallest of margins. In a dramatic final lap, Isaac eased off to negotiate a mêlée of marshals and crashed cars. In that chaos, the race ended - Ozzy had slipped through and won by a couple of feet!
After that exhilarating win, Ozzy was back in yellow lane for the
D Final...
He was one of three Mega-G+ drivers who could step-up to challenge Keith and Deborah for the Gen6 Cup win. It was a scrappy start - Rob delayed on lap one and then Ozzy having a big smash on lap two, losing four laps. He'd have an even more costly crash a few laps latter, ruining his chances. Rob recovered and took second from Ollie. Meanwhile, Ash was a class apart, keeping things clean in white lane - just one late off giving Rob a brief sniff of victory. In the end, Ash won by over a lap, Ollie was third and Ozzy fourth...
The
C Final was a bit of a classic, featuring a three-way battle for the Gen6 Cup win plus Duncan's Life Like...
Tension was high amongst the Mega-G+ runners, Deborah having chosen yellow lane and leading the opening laps. Duncan squeezed ahead on lap 3, but it was still incredibly close between all four runners. Keith was the first to crash - on lap 16 - but he came back strong, taking third when Ash had an off on lap 20. Those would be the only two crashes of the race...
Duncan's Life Like had the better of the Mega-G+ cars on pace - consistently lapping in the low to mid 3 seconds in the outside white lane. Over in yellow, Deborah was banging in 3.4s lap after lap - Keith taking a few hundredths and the occasional tenth out of her Gen6 lead. One mistake and Keith would be through and into the Gen6 shoot-out. In the end, Keith fell short by exactly half a lap. Duncan was absolutely delighted with his win - by a margin of two laps...
Duncan's reward was yellow in the
B Final...
He got a great start - but so did everyone else... Andy led Duncan, Matthew and Pete in the early stages. Duncan was pushing a little too hard - two offs dropping him back as Andy and Matthew battled side-by-side in blue and red lanes. It was great to watch as they both set sub-3 second times...
Matthew's challenge started to crumble on lap 11, when a brief off was followed by four more in quick succession. However, Andy couldn't relax as Pete was not far behind and setting some very consistent times in white lane. Half way in and Andy found a perfect rhythm, his lap times dropped and he added big chunks to his lead over Pete each lap. By the end, the two were separated by four laps, Duncan recovering to a fine third place, just a lap behind Pete...
There was no championship pressures in the A Final - Terry had wrapped up the Nascar title and the other three were just in it for a one-off win...
That was lucky for Terry, because he didn't finish the first lap - a big off at the North Bend wrecking body, axle and gears. The ensuing marshalling mayhem meant race leader Darren was taken out on lap two and three, dropping him back nearly two laps. That left Gareth and Andy running neck-and-neck in red and yellow lanes...
It was a brilliant opening phase of the race, the two WHO veterans swapping the lead lap after lap until Gareth crashed out on lap 14. That gave Andy a little breathing space - although Gareth came back strong and Darren was chipping away at least few hundredths of a second a lap, albeit still more than a lap adrift. It was still anyone's race...
A scrappy couple of laps for Gareth with 30 seconds to go let Darren through into second and on the same lap as the leader. Andy focussed on the precision rhythm that yellow lane demanded, keeping up his pace and managed the gap - exactly half a lap when the chequered flag fell. It was a textbook yellow lane Nascar win! Congrats to our medal winners Ollie and Andy...
That wasn't the end of the night's action by any means, but here are all the stats from the finals...
Click to make the image bigger.
The Gen6 Cup winner-takes-all showdown and championship presentations will follow a bit later...
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