Moderator's Report
Imola may not be the most popular circuit in these parts, but it produced a fabulous race. Well, from Lap 2 onwards anyway. Norm's great Pole advantage soon disappeared as the flag fell, by which time RogUK was already on his second start of the afternoon.
Once the carnage on the grid had cleared and things settled down we ended up with some good battles throughout the field.
Paul seems to be coming on leaps and bounds but his Honda seemed to be a handful at times.
Mike's sugar in the fuel tank had the desired effect on Lap 5 and he never lost the lead from that point on. Well, not until Fabio put in the fastest parade lap of the season anyway.
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RogUK makes a false start when the flag is raised but realises his mistake and stops again.
He is told to pit and does so at the end of lap 2. He then pits at the end of lap 4 and retires.
If you are shown a Black Flag and told to pit, unlike a Stop n Go which you can take anywhere, you must take a Black Flag stop in your own pit box. This will clear your penalty and allow you to continue.
If you are in this position and believe you should be allowed to continue to race, then you can continue you may be re-inserted in the final result by the moderator.
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Ronnie gets a better start than Norm ahead of him and moves over to pass him.
I think Ronnie is trying to leave room on the left and take a centre line but he simply does not allow Norm enough room and hits him
This is the root cause of the carnage that followed.
Drivers should not forget that the start and the first few corners of a race are the busiest and are always more subject to warp and lag though that was not involved here.
For those reasons they should always be prepared to stick to their own side of the grid and if necessary follow a slower car through T1 and make a cleaner pass later in the race.
Having said that, Vosblod did the same thing further down the grid with success.
Ronnie did have enough room on the left hand side and simply did not leave enough room on the right for Norm.
A total of 3 places lost seems harsh, but this avoidable lap 1 incident caused carnage behind and ruined the chances of a win for several drivers.
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Blito can see carnage ahead but continues accelerating and leaves it too late to lift off.
He reduces his reaction time and clips a recovering NHance.
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Billy tries to take avoiding action but hits a stricken Ronnie who is upside down across the track.
Billy Gets hit by Fabio but neither can avoid the collision.
Paul has a side by side with Vosblod while avoiding other cars.
Norbert and Ross end up side by avoiding other cars and hit each other.
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Both Norbert and Vosblod are recovering from the carnage at the start and they hit each other.
Both can see the other one and both could have avoided a collision but neither lifts and they collide.
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Billy hits Nigel Smith in Tosa but cannot avoid the collision as Nigel is sat on track facing the wrong way and Billy was partially unsighted.
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Norbert pulls off the overtake of the race around the outside of Tosa.
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Ross takes a Stop n Go for his lap1 SHIFTR but if it was not clear who was to blame I would continue and have the 30 second penalty added after the fact if necessary.
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Paul sees somebody in the crowd that owes him a fiver and stops to collect it.
He then almost has to spend that fiver on a new nosecone when he rejoins.
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Blito rejoins in front of Nigel and takes to the racing line.
Nigel sees him and slows but has nowhere to go.
If necessary, when rejoining you should use the alternate views to see if the track is clear, though it is possible that if Blito had not been revving so highly he would have heard Nigel approaching.