Having had a very bad event at this venue last time we visited, I was hessitant in how the evening would go, so I can't say that I was looking forward to the race. But during practice, I did find a change to the setup which helped produce quite a lot of pace out of the Volvo and through the change, the tires held on better than expected in the races as well.
Q1: Went out and was looking to do a high 14, thinking that that should be enough to place decently on the grid, but soon saw everyone dropping the time further and further down.
In the end, a 14,5, which was good enough for 3rd on the grid, a decent place to be looking for a chance to get further up the field at the start.
R1: At the start, I had a decent start but didn't have many places to go with it and Grant had a flyer of the start and was looking up the inside at Allard but I was able to hold him off and ended up going up alongside Niklas going down towards Campbell.
I decided to try to break early and undercut Niklas going through the complex, but Grant was looking up the inside at the same time and sadly a bit of contact was made, no major damage to my car, I hope the same could be said for the bimmer Grant.
Stayed in 3rd for a couple of laps, but then I made a right mess of Church and had no pace down Brooklands straight and Grant was able to brake around the outside of me going into Club.
Stuck with him for the following lap and then thought I had a move going heading towards Campbell, but I broke at just the wrong time and the car went sideways on me, making contact with Grant and throwing him off the road. I was happy to see that you were able to re-join safely at the other end of the complex, very sorry for that contact. Coming out of Seagrave, I was not perceptive enough and ended up going across the front of Juha who had gone for the outside run there, which saw me go to the grass and drop to 6th. Sorry for that one Juha.
From there, I took a lap to resettle and re-atune my brain to the idiot that I had been in that section and set about working my way towards Wilks who were now ahead of me in his Audi.
He got a good run through Club and Juha did not. Tried to follow Richard through but it was not to be. On the following lap, Juha made a mistake at Campbell, I undercut him at Cobb and then again at Seagrave, just barely managing to give him enough room coming out of the turn. We then ran side-by-side through Noble and I could secure the pass at Goodwood.
So 5th place was mine and neither Richard nor Grant was that far ahead yet. Set about closing in on the Audi but that car was going very well around this place, the one place it lacked real pace was from Seagrave through to Church. Had a run on Wilks twice heading towards Church but decided against it, it was too early to get that crazy, or creative, dependent on if you ask Jason Plato or not...
Managed to get a good enough run through Club that I was close enough to Richard going through the Complex and through Noble that, when he ended up running just a tad wide of the initial apex at Goodwood, I stabbed my car up the inside just about having enough room to have the right side wheels on the curb on the inside and no contact with Richard on my left. I then had enough straight line speed to outdrag him before Church and 4th place was mine.
From there, it took a lap or two to catch up to Grant proper and knowing I had sent him off the track once, I wasn't about to do it again.
But like Richard, the one place where I was able to get proper runs on him late in the race was into Goodwood and Church. I had a good run on him around lap 13 but Grant very clearly showed that I wasn't going to go up the inside if I was that late in the run.
On lap 16 (I think it was), Grant had a slight bobble going into Goodwood and like I had done with Richard, I stabbed the car up the inside, but the Bimmer is about as good as the Volvo in a straight line, so we were pretty much neck'n'neck going towards Church. Late in the run, I decided to downshift to 5th and brake, to make sure I'd be able to give Grant enough room on the exit, but to my surprise, he slightly overdid it on his outside line and ran wide onto the grass, and with that slightly better acceleration coming out of there, I was able to outdrag him along Brooklands and stay ahead braking for Club.
Had one more big moment, when the car understeered on the second to last lap at Goodwood. I recon I just slightly overdid it on the old tires, the car broke sideways on the grass, I was able to collect her up and rejoin but had to defend hard going into Club. I pretty much parked the car in the left-hander of the Club chicane to avoid giving a run to anyone else, but it caused all out battle behind and I was able to hold on to 3rd place. A good recovery from a lackluster opening quarter of the race.
Really fun battles with you guys!
Q2: For Q2, I managed to hit the 14,5 fairly early and it took a long time for anyone else to get close. In the end, John got really close in the other Volvo and Niklas out-did me by 15 thousands of a second, which had me cursing. Went on another run and got real close, based on the time on my screen, less than .000 seconds away from out-doing him, .001 for others watching.
That had me fired up, I knew I had a lot more in the car, so pitted for new tires and went for one final run. Managed to hook her up well enough around the full lap and when I came through Club, I knew I had pole as long as Niklas didn't have one last run going, a 14,3, 8 thousands off what Niklas could do in Q1, I'd consider that a very well driven run.
R2: I knew that if I could get a good start, it'd be difficult for anyone to do much about me, as I had seen that my race pace was right up there with the other front runners.
Got a fantastic start, just the right amount of clutch to move off the line immediately and with Niklas having a mare of a start, John was next up with the Bimmers having partly been blocked in behind them.
Coming out of Club after the first lap, I was enjoying a "massive" 2 second lead, ahead of John.
From there, it was a question of staying consistent and, despite a couple of minor mistakes, he never got close enough to challenge and the final few laps I could even pull out the gap again, so a nice, quiet, steady drive meant another victory in the championship, and an eeked out championship lead.
Overall, a bit too much contact from my own side for me to be totally happy with the evening, but a faaar better set of results than I had dared before the races, so still plaesed overall.
Thank you to Juha, Grant, John and Richard for a good set of battles in the two races!
EDIT:
Additionally, here is a short video of the 3 passes that I made in Race 1 to get up to 3rd from 6th, for anyone interested in how you can go about passing on this Thruxton circuit.