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Race 1 & Round 2 of the Spring League Interlagos Gr3 13 Laps Fuel usage x5 Tyre Wear x6 Qualifying; In the short testing leading up to qualifying a few of us had been trying different cars to get a feel of which one to us. Lee @GazzaGarratthad primarily been using the Corvette but decided to switch to the Peugeot RCZ right before qualifying which was going to be either an inspired or disastrous choice. We all exit the pits at the beginning of quali which cause everyone to bunch up towards the end of the lap while trying to make some space. Tom @LordBaguette is the first to cross the line and setting new personal best on his first try though his lap is quickly beaten by Kiwi @JBR-Kiwi then I set a new PB to take provisional pole. Lee manages to nail his second flying lap to move himself up to 2nd until Kiwi crosses the line with a lap 4 hundredths faster than Lee. @Mikepjbell who had been having a not so great qualifying decided he wanted some of this action and on his third flying lap to move up to 3rd before getting 2nd on his next lap, beating Kiwi's time by 6 hundredths of a second. Both Kiwi and Lee go faster on their final lap with Kiwi managing to retake his second place on the grid and Lee missing out on beating Mike to 3rd by 5 hundredths of a second. Race; With these league races having a standard start, some cars a tricky to get off the line but everyone got of well which meant we were all bunched together for turn 1 which didn't go all the cleanly. @crispymorgan runs a little deep and tapping the rear of Lee who then runs in to me and pushing me wide. In this pinball, Lee got a bit sideways giving Tom nowhere to go except to hit Lee further and pushing him in to a full spin and dropping him to the back meaning another recovery race for Lee. In all the chaos of T1, Phil had managed to sneak through unscathed and move himself up to third place behind Kiwi and myself however a difference in braking for T4 sees me having to take avoiding action to not ram Kiwi giving Phil an easy pass in to the second. Running over the kerb had cost me a lot of my momentum but luckily for me, Mike rear ends me and bumps back up to racing speed to the cost of his speed as Tom sails passed him. This puts Tom right on my tail as we go through the infield section but a misjudged braking point at turn 10 has Tom running in to me right as Phil spins off in front of me. The contact between myself and Tom gives Mike an easy pass up to 2nd place though I managed to hold on to 3rd as Tom and Phil drop to 6th and 7th respectively. I get a good run out of the final corner and get the tow from Mike up the hill, I try a pass in to T1 but Mike defends and keeps me in third. I get a second chance at T4 as Mike runs wide but a snap of oversteer has him swerve across the track and, in a reverse of the first lap, I hit Mike's rear bumping him back up to racing speed. Though my chance came thanks to Lee channelling the commentators curse by saying at least Mike has spun who then spins right afterwards. Behind this battle, Tom trying to recover again manages to spin on the exit of T10 and then when getting going again, runs wide at T12 and spins again. Paul @slamminbones seemed to be having a quiet race in 5th but loses a place to a recovering Phil on lap 3. Lee, also on a recovery drive, decides to take an alternate strategy and takes his pit stop at the end of lap 3 changing his racing super softs for racing softs which hopefully are enough to get to the end of the race. The infield section was proving tricky as tyres started to wear as T10 of lap 5 sees Phil spin, shortly followed by Tom and then immediately by Lee. I had managed to catch up to Kiwi in the lead and getting a good run out of the final corner, I again use the tow to try a move in to T1 of lap 6 but unlike against Mike, this one works thanks to Kiwi being quiet compliant - which worried me as playing catch up I had used more fuel than I'd have liked and Kiwi not defending too hard suggested a different strategy but more on that later. As the race was 13 laps, I decided to split it as evenly as possible and pit at the end of lap 7 for a new set of racing super softs and fuel to the end dropping me to 3rd. On fresh tyres, I began catching Mike who had taken over 2nd due to my stop but Mike pits the end of lap 8 also for a new set of super softs. This leaves me chasing Kiwi for the lead and I had taken over 6 seconds out of his lead as he pits at the end of lap 9 which was enough for me to have extended my lead with only a few laps to go. Tom who had gotten fed up of all his spins and pitted on lap 5 but didn't take on any fuel has to do a second stop to take on some fuel. Lee who had managed to recover to 4th but suffering on his worn softs, runs wide at T12 on lap 10 and gets reset as Phil moves up a place. After 10 laps the field had become quite spread out meaning a quiet final few laps until the end of the race with me taking the win, Kiwi 2nd and Mike 3rd. Results League Table after round 2 Position Driver Race 1 Race 2 Total Pts 1 Greboth 25 25 50 2 JBR-Kiwi 20 20 40 3 Mikepjbell 12 15 27 4 phil_oi 15 12 27 5 GazzaGarratt 9 11 20 6 slamminbones 8 10 18 7 Crispy 7 8 15 8 JTLurch 11 n/a 11 9 TEENWOLF25 10 n/a 10 10 Lord Baguette n/a 9 9 11 Misneach DNF n/a 0 Race 2 Suzuka East N200 7 laps As with recent weeks, the league race has qualifying but the following races grid is set as a reverse of the finishing position of the previous race. Race Due to some technical issues with takeaway delivery, Crispy was AFK for the start of the race and as he finished last in the league meant the pole sitter was not going to start. This caught Lee out who hit the non moving Crispy dropping him to the back again. I try an ambitious move around the outside of T1 but run a little too wide and get very sideways dropping myself to last with a few seconds to gain to the pack. The pack stays close together on the run up through the esses with some small contact between Tom and Mike that ends with Mike in to the gravel at the top as Lee also follows in to the gravel. With all the contact, it had allowed me to recover and following Phil in to T1 of lap 2 as Phil gets it a little wrong allowing me to get passed with the aim of catching up to Tom. Tom runs wide through the essess and rejoins abruptly catching both Phil and I out as we both hit him. Tom recovers well but makes a further mistake as Phil and I get passed to continue our battle. Again I follow Phil in to T1 as Phil runs wide and giving me the place with only Kiwi now in front. Though Kiwi had started on the back row with myself, he had a relatively clean race and had opened a lead so was unlikely to be caught without him making an unforced error, which he did not but there was more action down the grid. Tom, Mike and Lee had managed to all end up on the same section of race track and battle up through the esses of lap 3 and on to lap 4 where at T1 Lee and Tom run wide, Lee manages to recover to the track quite quickly but it catches Mike out. In taking some avoiding action, Mike gets a bit lose and side swipes Lee harder than a nymphomaniac on Tinder but they both carry on without too much time lost. This is short lived though as on the following lap, lap 5, Mike touches the grass up through the esses and while he tries valiantly to hold on to it, lots of fish tailing later sees Mike in to the gravel and easily giving the place back to Tom and Lee. This time though it was Lee's turn to as at T1 of lap 6 Lee runs wide and spins out and although he gets reset quite quickly it is enough for Mike to retake the place which he holds on to until the end. At the chequered flag, Kiwi crosses the line for the win, myself in 2nd with Phil taking the final podium position. Results Race 3 BroadBean Raceway Gr4 12 laps Race Going in to the race, most of us had done no practise and were trying to decide which cars to use. It was quickly established the Audi TT was fast but Kiwi was setting the pace in the WRX so I switched to try the WRX too. This caused some comedy at the start of the race as the lights went green and both Kiwi and I took off thanks to a 4WD Subaru against everyone else in front wheel drive Audi's. Kiwi was clearly the fastest though and at no point did I ever look like getting close enough to try a move. Down the grid, Crispy was suffering due to having harder tyres than the rest of us so was quickly passed by Lee and then Phil. Lee runs wide out of T4 and clips the wall giving Mike the momentum to make the pass and on the following lap a repeat situation on lap 3 but this time giving Phil the overtake. Phil catches up to Mike and on lap 8 overtakes Mike round T1, Mike tries to fight back but clips the inside wall of T2 costing too much speed so can't fight to retake his position. Everyone was spread out by this point and so the positions remained the same until the finish where Kiwi took his second win of the night, as myself and Phil took 2nd and 3rd respectively again. Due to the lack of highlights for this race, I haven't made a video for this race. Results Final words Another night of good racing from everyone. It was a shame to see Lee have another difficult race in the league race but keeping it together and carrying on to push saw him recover a reasonable position. Race 2 was a fun race and raced like touring cars should be; as was once said rubbing is racing. GG all, here's to many more weeks of close and fun racing.