Having dropped down to 25 runners, we had eight full step-up finals.
James had chosen blue lane for the
H Final, Kevin red, Isaac white and Nathan was left with yellow...
James was a man on a mission - he led the opening laps and hammered in some consistently fast laps. Kev's night continued to be below par - crashing on the first lap and never finding a rhythm with his Super-G. Both Nathan and Isaac made it round once before crashing. They were all making it very easy for James and his shiny new Sauber...
Just past the halfway mark and James was cruising. But then disaster struck - a heavy off required trackside repairs. Such was James' early race form that he was stationary for 25 seconds and still returned to the track in the lead! Another six laps got James home safely - two laps ahead of Isaac and four ahead of Nathan and Kev...
That was James' first WHO final win and he stepped up to white for the
G Final, where he'd face Steve P (yellow), Kevin (red) and Ollie (blue)...
Ollie was pretty pleased with getting blue lane and he made the most of it after a troublesome qualifying, struggling with the Super-G+ on higher tyres. He led from the line and a crash on lap 5 didn't matter as almost everyone else had been off by then. All apart from Steve, who was now right behind Ollie, but not quite on the same pace...
Steve's steady laps were the perfect strategy for yellow lane and it meant Ollie had to keep things tidy. One more off on lap 11 closed the gap right up again, but then Ollie delivered eleven great laps to bring him home a lap and a half ahead of Steve. Kevin rolled in third, with James showing speed but no consistency to finish fourth.
Although Ollie had only crashed twice, he did manage to knock the front off his car. He'd line up in red lane for the
F Final, alongside Dylan (yellow), Stephen McCann (blue) and Rob (white)...
Ollie carried on where he'd left off - leading the race from the start. Stephen was right on his tail though, giving us a great Super-G vs Mega-G+ battle. Ollie kept his nose in front until an off on lap eight handed Stephen the lead...
Dylan had lost time early on, but Rob was still in the hunt along with Ollie - putting plenty of pressure on the leader. Stephen was lapping a few tenths slower than the pursuing Super-G - all of their lap times getting faster and faster. Something was going to have to give! In the end, Rob crashed twice and Ollie one more time - but both had pushed Stephen to a massive 25.00 lap score. That was quite a race.
Stephen moved from blue to white for the
E Final, meeting Gary (blue), Tracy (yellow) and Stephen Atkinson (red) in an all-Mega-G+ affair...
Tracy and Gary both crashed on the first lap, leaving the two Stephens to give us one of the best battles of the night. Stephen McCann had the better of the early stages, but Stephen Atkinson was soon trading fastest laps with the WHO veteran...
Holding a small lead at half distance, Stephen M was off on unlucky lap 13 and lost four seconds to his rival. The next nine laps were sensational - Stephen M channelling his anger to deliver some rapid laps. Stephen A matched him for a while, but then just eased off a little. The gap started to visibly shrink lap by lap. Had the leader backed off too much? Going the through the line for what would be the last time, the gap was 0.765 of a second. When the power was cut and the cars came to a stop, Stephen A had done it - a win by a tenth of a lap! Tracy made it a McCann 2-3, with Gary fourth.
Stephen A stepped up to yellow for the
D Final, where he'd race against Terry's Super-G+ in red, Gareth's SRT in blue and Ethan's Mega-G+ in white...
Ethan failed to get off the line and when he finally did - 30 seconds later - his car didn't sound good. It was a shame, as he was having the most successful night of his short WHO HO career. However, with Dylan not getting out of the F Final, Ethan had already bagged his first WHO HO Junior medal.
In the race for a place in the C Final, Terry led before crashing on lap 4. That gave the advantage to Gareth - Stephen having crashed on the first lap. Gareth had swapped from Super-G to SRT for his last heat and had changed the tyres for this final. When Terry crashed a second time, it was looking very likely Gareth might race again...
It wasn't a totally clean run for the SRT. An off with 45 seconds saw Gareth with company again - Terry was breathing down his neck. A super-exciting run-in had both drivers set almost identical times. Terry made one last push for the win, taking nearly half a second off Gareth in two laps before crossing the line 0.126 seconds in arrears! The two cars came to a halt a few feet apart - Gareth winning by a twentieth of a lap.
Gareth stepped up into white lane for the
C Final, where his SRT gatecrashed a Mega-G+ party...
Ash started in yellow, Mike in red and Daniel in blue. Daniel binned it at the hairpin on the first lap, with Gareth crashing from the lead at the next corner. That left Ash leading Mike, at least until Mike crashed on lap 3. There was no respite for Ash, as Gareth was fighting back from his poor start - chipping away by a few tenths each lap...
Mike also settled into a rhythm in the favoured blue lane, sitting in third and waiting for something to happen. Gareth's momentum took a knock with another off on lap nine, but still held second. At the front, Ash's pace was good - consistently in the 4.9s and 5.0s - and matching those behind him...
Behind, second place became third as Gareth had two late crashes in quick succession. That early off really cost him - without it, he could have controlled the race rather than having to chase. But Ash drove a perfect race in yellow lane, running error-free and beating Mike by three quarters of a lap. Gareth came in third and Daniel fourth.
The A and B Finals will follow. Will anyone beat Stephen's 25 lap score in the F Final?
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