BTCC Qualifying, Race One & Race Two
Oliver departed at lunchtime, leaving us with a full 18-car grid for BTCC. Duncan borrowed Simon's BMW 330 and Stephen had Andy's spare BMW 125. Otherwise, everyone else was an owner-driver. We'd run qualifying and then then Races One & Two back-to-back. Each race had four step-up heats - with the top two finishers stepping up each time.
The cars had been arranged into three 2-minute qualifying heats, Mike and Andy lining them up, ready to go...
There were some very quick times - but Alex was the only driver going sub-11 seconds...
That put the top four in the Race One A Final, four each in the B and C Finals, plus the least-fast six cars in the D Final. Terry started last, having changed his car after the qualifying session. Remember, two drivers would step up from each final.
BTCC Race One
With those step-ups we had four 16-lap heats - Ollie taking a look outside and determining that the track conditions would be Damp. As a result, no option tyres would be necessary today - the choice for this first race being Softs or Intermediates...
The D Final saw Daniel dominate with his MG6 - the long-wheelbase car really enjoying the fast open corners. He had a healthy lap lead over Stephen at half distance, with Terry, Gareth and Duncan all close behind. Dylan was holding on a lap further back. An excellent battle for second place developed between Stephen and Duncan - and it was Duncan who grabbed that all-important step-up place in the dying seconds. Daniel won by a lap, Gareth and Dylan both finished on 12 laps, Terry dropping to the back after issues with his spare car. All had run Intermediate tyres - the sensible choice for Damp track conditions.
Sadly, Daniel wasn't on the pace in the C Final. However, the other five were locked together after 8 laps - Pete leading Jeremy, Matthew, Ollie and Duncan. Jeremy - the only car on Soft tyres - slipped ahead with four laps to go, Pete now trying to fight off Matthew for second. Those three finished on the same lap - Jeremy and Pete taking the step-ups. Ollie was fourth with the fastest lap, Duncan fifth and Daniel sixth.
Ash led from the front in the B Final, facing a ferocious challenge from Jeremy, Rob and Pete in the early stages. That was the order at halfway, Dean in fifth and Simon's Civic already retired from the race. Jeremy was in an MG sandwich, keeping Ash in his sights, but wary of Rob behind him. He was also - again - the only car on Soft tyres. At the chequered flag, the three of them finished on the same lap, Rob frustratingly missing out on the step-up. Pete was fourth and Dean fifth.
Could Ash or Jeremy take advantage of their extra track time in the A Final? From the start, all six cars were in contention. After 4 laps, Alex was leading from pole, followed by Ryan, Jeremy, Andy, Ash and Mike - all on the same lap. Five cars were running Soft tyres, only Ash on Intermediates. The pace was relentless and errors extremely rare - the race order remaining exactly the same at half distance. Alex was driving superbly and by lap 12 was beginning to lap the field - the order the same. Would there be any drama by the end? Andy overtook Jeremy with two laps to go, but then tripped over Mike while overtaking the surprise backmarker. That let Jeremy back through to grab the final podium place - Alex and Ryan finishing a lap ahead of the others...
Huge congrats to Alex on his win, pole position and fastest lap - that's maximum points in round one of the six race championship...
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BTCC Race Two
There was no let-up in the BTCC action - Race Two following straight on. The grid was determined by the Race One result, so Alex was starting from pole. The top five from Race One all carried 'success ballast' - significant power reductions that would impact on their straight line speed. Alex would carry the biggest power reductions, but Ash in fifth would certainly notice a lack of speed too. Weather forecaster Ollie looked outside and the conditions were again Damp - Softs or Inters it would be...
From the start of the D Final, Terry's Civic finally seemed to be firing on all cylinders - he led Daniel and Stephen to half distance, Duncan and Dylan a couple of laps adrift and Gareth's Civic having retired. All cars were shod with Intermediate tyres. The McCann twins were having a huge battle for second place - Daniel's MG6 just about holding off Stephen's BMW going into the final laps. However, it ended with joy for Stephen and disappointment for Daniel - the pass coming on the final lap. The top three all finished on 16 laps, Duncan next, 3 laps adrift.
The C Final began at a frenetic pace - Dean leading Matthew and Simon at halfway, followed by a second pack of Stephen - the only man on Soft tyres - Terry and Ollie. They turned out to be two intriguing battles, Matthew eventually coming good to take the win and Simon pipping Dean to second. Behind them, Ollie banged in another superb mid-11 second lap, but couldn't pass Terry and Stephen - Ollie just needs to match that raw speed with some consistency to move him further up the BTCC field.
Despite his woes in Race One, Mike had to be favourite for the B Final. He was off the line like a scalded cat and led Pete, Ash and Matthew after 8 laps. Ash was really noticing the power reduction from the fifth place 'success ballast' and struggled to find the same form he'd shown with the MG in Race One. Simon - the only driver choosing Soft tyres - and Rob were both having issues further back and were just concentrating on finishing the race. Pete was doing a great job staying on the same lap as Mike - there were no late-race dramas and those two would step-up to the feature race. Ash finished third, just ahead of Matthew - Simon beat Rob to fifth, both four laps adrift of the winner.
It was all about success ballast in the A Final - Mike and Pete the only cars without a power reduction. They and Andy started on Intermediates, the others on Softs. It was another fast and mostly error free race for the cream of the BTCC crop. Mike took only four laps to get through the pack and onto Alex's tail, Andy sitting third, Ryan fourth, Jeremy fifth and Pete sixth. It looked like Mike would cruise past into the lead, but Alex was fighting hard for a second win. He held firm as the rest of the field bunched up. An off for Andy dropped him from third to last place at half distance - Ryan, Jeremy and Pete moving up. The battle at the front between Alex and Mike was relentless, while Ryan, Jeremy and the recovering Andy held formation behind. There was late-race drama - Mike making one last push for the win... and binning it. He handed Jeremy second place, but slotted back just in front of Ryan, with Andy not far behind - the top five all finishing on the same lap...
It was a classic success ballast race and a superb performance from Alex - including fastest lap...
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Following the podium presentation, pole-position was drawn for Race Three. Ball #9 was fished out of the bowl by Duncan to give the ninth place finisher in Race Two - Simon - pole position for Race Three. The order would then count back from ninth to first and then as per the race result from tenth to eighteenth. So the A Final qualifiers would be Simon, Matthew, Ash and Pete. Andy would start first in the B Final with fifth place success ballast, followed by Ryan, Mike and Jeremy all with ballast. Alex would be back in the C Final with full success ballast - and a mountain to climb.
But all that would come after the Group A team race and a complete change of pace...
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