Well, sprint rounds never fail to put on a good show!
I was seriously struggling to find grip and get good lap times during the practice lobby so I was getting a bit worried about qualification. Quali came around and I had the same issue. I think my tyres finally came up to temp on lap 5 or 6 and I managed to set a decent time, finally snagging P1 from Anth. I retired to the pits to watch the timing board and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the difference was only .007, huge thanks to Anth for making that such a close quali session.
I got a great start off the line for race 1 and headed for the first corner. Anth got a pretty average start and I could see him get swamped by Bounty. We had a nice little train for the first couple of laps but then then myself, Bounty, and Anth started to pull away from the rest of the cars. Those two spent up until about lap 7 only 1.5 seconds off my tail but after that I think their battle for P2 allowed me to pull away to about a 5 or 6 second gap. At some point I noticed that Anth had gotten past Bounty and was now in P2 chasing me. The gap grew smaller as the laps went by. I had a very hairy moment at the chicane when trying to make my way around a lapped car, I'm not sure what he was doing but we came together which forced me across the dirt. Luckily I didn't spin but I thought I'd get a 5 second penalty, I was lucky and it never came. Nevertheless this cost me bulk time and Anth was now only 3 seconds behind me. Another close call at the same spot with another lapped car on the next lap had my heart racing but I managed to get through untouched. I spent the last few laps just trying to stay consistent and watching that gap to Anth. Congrats to @Anthonyb and @Bounty05 on rounding up the podium with me for the first race, and well done to Anth on a great fastest lap.
The first lap of the second race was pretty chaotic! Turn 1 saw a couple of cars go off the track but I got through cleanly. I passed a few cars there and proceeded through the downhill section with Anth very close, we were side by side through turn 4 but he had the inside line into turn 5 so I backed off a little and let him through there. More cars came off the track through the remaining corners of the first lap. On the little straight leading to the final corner Slap suddenly veered right to get around a car and shoved me onto the grass, I recovered well though and by the time we reached turn 1 of the second lap I only had Metalsteel and Slap ahead of me, with Anth following closely behind. Slap got passed Metal by turn 2 of lap 3 and I tucked in behind Metal until he had an off coming out of turn 7. I got to work chasing down Slap, sitting about a second behind him until he outbraked himself coming into turn 8 on lap 4 and I managed to pass him coming into the back straight. Him and Anth were following pretty close behind at first but their battle was allowing me to pull away a bit. Slap was leading Anth for quite a while but then I saw Anth in P2 for a lap or so until he made a little error and Slap got P2 back again. A few laps later Slap got a cut-track penalty at the chicane and Anth was back in P2 once again, I think it was then that Ranok3n snagged P3 too. Those top 3 positions didn't change for the rest of the race. Big congrats to @Anthonyb and @SuiCid3 on rounding out the podium with me in that second race.
Thanks to everyone who raced last night, it was great to see another almost full grid again. Bring on the enduro in Spain!
Here's a highlights reel:
Last edited: May 15, 2017
