This time out, we had 9 starters, which was good, with Mark Fox joining in once again after his recent overseas journeys and also Charles Rickards joining us for an 'initial' dabble with these cars, which was great to have Charles back racing once again. Unfortunately, Dale was unable to join us, due I believe to work commitments.
Prior to this round, both Mark & myself had done some Mid-Week testing, partly to get Mark's Car, Head & Trigger finger back Into these cars
and to do some serious Testing/Tuning both for this round and the upcoming 8 Hour event, which I think was a very good thing.Having the two of us testing together allowed us to do some very useful comparative Driving and Tuning between both of us as drivers and the cars themselves, which is arguably much better than merely slogging around by yourself, as you can compare the effects / changes etc.
Anyway, on to the Racing
Heat 1
Here we had Jake, Darryl, Rodney, Mark and Charles lining up for the start and from the very beginning, it was obvious, that Mark was setting a 'Cracking Pace', (our testing seemingly bearing Fruits),..
As can be seen from the Race sheets, it was an 'All the Way' Win for Mark, never relinquishing the top spot but was also at times a Very close run thing for the minor placings across the rest of the field, with Both 2nd & 3rd spot being held by everyone at various stages of the race. Newcomer (to this Class) Charles, even holding 2nd for 2 x brackets !!
I think Charles' progress was perhaps 'thwarted' by a Nasty accident just before half way, which may have slightly 'tweaked' the car he was using (It being the car Cody was going to use on the night) and eventually dropped back as the pace amongst the others was typically pretty high.
Jake, Darryl and Rodney spent the race exchanging places with each other, although Jake slowly moved ahead after the 3rd bracket to hold 2nd place till the end and slowly increased his lead over the rest. Jake's car was/is, very Potent and he would undoubtedly have finished even Closer to Mark AND finished Higher Overall, with Less Unforced Errors !!,..
Darryl, finally managed to finish 1 x lap up on Rodney to take 3rd in the Heat but seems to be lacking the Pace and clean consistent driving he Invariably shows in Retro and GT-1's, let alone his performances with Mark and myself as part of the FAT Racing team in the previous two 6 hour Porsche Cup Enduros, so a bit ot tuning may also help his car;s Pace and his own confidence.
Overall another typically fast and enjoyable Porsche Cup race, with Mark managing to set a great overall lap total for the night, of 402 and setting a High Bracket total on Red of 52 !!
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After having done the aforementioned 'Pre Race' testing with Mark along with a subtle Change to the Body Movement, in practice before the start,(which quickly showed the 'suspected' improvement I believed it would), I went into this race, with some degree of confidence of doing quite well.
This 'Hopeful Outlook' being perhaps even more important this evening, as Wayne & Cody had swapped cars which (in theory), could have made for a Very competitive and interesting race for the Series Leaders.
After discussions and suggestions at the previous rounds, John had also made some changes to His car's setup, which seemed to show the expected improvements (in practice) and was therefore theoretically Set, to do well once again.
With Cody choosing to start on Purple and myself on Blue, I managed to get an early 'break' to end the 1st bracket in the lead, with the car seemingly to be preforming even better than it has in the previous rounds and having generally Great overall Pace, allowing me to get around the Triangle and through the Esses far better/quicker, which certainly seemed to Bode well for the rest of the race !!
With Cody now on Black and myself on Purple, John drove a Great bracket on Green to move ahead of myself, into the lead and held it until the end of the 3rd bracket, although with Cody running on Yellow he managed to end on the same lap as John, slightly ahead to take 2nd.
I dropped to 4th when on Black, Wayne moving past into 3rd, with Cody moving into his 'Customary' 1st place with a 52 on Orange.
After getting through the Black and Purple brackets and Only being 2 x laps behind Cody and the car and myself seemingly able to run at a cracking Pace, I was thinking this could prove to be a VERY Close run thing at the finish between Cody, Wayne and myself,....... UNTIL,..... whilst literally Tearing around on Yellow, I manged to Climb All over the back of John's recently Marshaled car on Purple, as we came around the 'Lead-On', (I was aware of him being there, just didn't think I would catch him where I did,..sigh),.. which Seriously 'Launched' my car Skywards,... finally landing on the floor after 'bouncing' off the wall and (as I soon discovered), seriously 'deranging' the alignment of the rear end,..
A quick trip to the pits did Not initially find/fix the problem, (as I had thought it was the front end that was awry) but was instantly evident upon returning the car to the track, that it was still Very 'Unwell' !!!
Another Pit session aided by Mark & Darryl helped 'Fix' the rear end and the car was Once again motoring along fine but had seriously compromised my lap total for the bracket, Only turning 40 laps, compared to My usual 50 or 51 on Yellow, which was just ever so slightly,.. disappointing, to say the Least !!!,..
This now left me in last place, on 189 laps, 10 behind John on 199, Wayne a lap ahead of John on 200 and Cody a further 3 laps ahead of Wayne on 203,.. so the 'Chase' as such,.. was ON !!
With John now moving onto both Purple and Black and Wayne seemingly having an untypically poor evening generally and also still yet to run on Purple and Black and myself heading to my favourite end of the track and the car still running Very well after it repair, I was still 'Hopeful' of clawing my way back up the order.
Cody, by now was well ahead and steadily pulling away from us all, with runs of 53, 51, 52 & 52 to close out the race to end on 411. I also managed to do some good runs for the 2nd half, with 52, 51, 51 and end with a High of 53 on Green to Just manage to 'Pip' Wayne for 2nd in the closing stages of the last bracket, finishing 1 lap up, on 396, Wayne on 395 and John having had a less than Ideal run on Black of 43, ending on 392.
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Congrats to Mark and to Cody for another fine and deserved Win and 1st place in the Series.
Thanks also once again, to all the other drivers, James for 'hosting' the events, Joe for his tireless Track-Call 'Button Work' and Wayne for organizing the Series.
