After the finish of Super One this round was supposed to be a warm down so pressure was off.........
TQ - After looking racey in testing and practice TQ was not good with a final qualifying of 9th. Having said this the time Dude put down was in clean air, with no push or tow so we know we were on the pace but frustrated we were going to have to work from mid-field again.
Once the two qualifying sessions were calculated this put us in P18 eeek!
Oh well, club round, go out and have some fun.......BUT do the Job! Lol
Heat 1 - So the heat startign positions were calculated and Lucas was running off P12, better than 18!
Lights out and charge........Lap 1 saw a bodacious move around the outside of the loop to put him in P5 crossing the line for the first time......this looked good. Lap 2 saw him jump to P2 but the gap to his teammate who was leading was 3 seconds ahead but let's try to catch him.
Lap 4 saw the drivers behind start to race for position and so Lucas dropped to P4, even though they were catching the leader. Over the next 3 laps Lucas got back to P2 and that's where he took the flag....great drive from P12 with a race up from 1/3rd of the way into the race.
Heat 2 - Off for the 2nd heat and this time made up 6 places on Lap 1, another on Lap 2 to sit P4 on track then set about hunting down the leading trio. Unfortunately there was not anyone near him to help push forwardas the driver in P5 was just hanging on and not really able to give a shove down the long straights....anyway, by Lap 7 Lucas had closed the near 2 second gap to 0.5s and was closing in and on the last lap got to a position where he went to pass P3 driver who turned round and saw him beside and promptly turned the steering wheel in his direction and forced him onto the grass resulting in him crosing the line in P4....another solid run from a few rows back and fastest lap of the race.
Final - The strong runs in the heats benefitted for the final as a P4 starting position was a very nice surprise as we had thought it would be P6 or 8.
Go and Lap 1 saw Lucas come across the line in P2 behind his teammate and the pair tried to push away from the pack behind but slowly over the subsequent 6 laps they were caught and so on Lap 8 Lucas slotted in behind the British #2 plate driver and over the next 2 laps frenetic place changes were taking place between the 3 drivers and onto the last lap......#2 goes defensive and it backs up the front trio into the chasing pack and coming over the bridge the #7 driver tries a hail mary move to get past Lucas which does not work, just smashing into his rear right, spinning #7 and with nowhere to go #4 goes over the top of #7 in a flat spin landing hard on the bank.
This gave a breathing space to the leader and a couple of lengths space to Lucas in 2nd but the pack were pushing toward him quickly. Down the hill and into Hairpin 1 and they closed a length to a length gap...into Hairpin 2 and Lucas goes in hard to try and maintain the gap but the momentum is with them, they close nearer going into the chicane and lucas cannot afford not to defend so into the 90 degree right he goes defensive to block the inside line.......out of sight from teh grandstand the question is can he hold it tight enough to stop anyone slipping up the inside into the right left swan neck and when he comes into view he has but they are on his bumper so not it's all about the drag to the finiahs line, round the last corner and head down for a second then look behind and drift across to make the driver behind go the long way round to take 2nd!!!!!
The only downside was the scruitineering visit post final when the engine was stripped.........not what we wanted at all but there you go...rough with teh smooth and all that.....what's wrong with just checking the spark plug?
Fantastic driving all weekend and a podium to make up for the previous weekend, well done Dude!
Thanks to all the usual suspects!