Running away with the Championship was unexpected; prying them from Geoffers' tentacles is quite impossible these days, and in all honesty only happened because he missed a round more than me.
Echo Bob's thoughts about the series; has been interesting with a new, unknown track each round, but also hard having to practice with 3 cars every time.
Race 1 I was 2nd on the grid, but once again Dan's otherworldly starts brought him ahead. With two knocks from Clive, my main Championship competitor at this point, within the first few corners, I was worried about sitting behind Dan for too long, being unable to escape from Clive. Already on lap 2 however, he most kindly waved me through - that was very nice of you Dan, and really uncalled for. You're - almost - forgiven your extragalactic starts...
Geoffers impossibly fast once again, so no chance of catching him. Franky closing fast towards the end, but not enough to catch me before the race ended.
Really don't like the Mazda and found it especially atrocious on this track in my initial testing. If I as much as breathed on the brakes while in a curve, like for T1, it would immediately stop turning and plough straight on. When you went on the gas, it switched to oversteer. Moving the brake balance towards the rear helped with the brake problem, but increased the risk of losing the rear once a bit of tyre wear crept in, so had to find a compromise. Oversteer I couldn't solve with setup, so just had to drive around it.
Didn't expect to be able to do anything about Geoffers, but then he went off at T1, gifting me the lead. Rest of the race was a nice battle with Franky. My main concern was not to give away too many points to either Geoffers or Clive, so considered letting him past, rather than risk an incident sending me down the field, in case an optimistic overtake attempt went wrong. On the other hand, if I could bag a win... Decided to see how things would play out, and it seemed the Mazda's better acceleration was just enough to keep me ahead. Franky went off on the penultimate lap and was replaced by a closing Geoffers, but race ended before he could catch me, fortunately!
Race 3 and as Tony suggested, I hadn't read the memo about it being Toyota only
Being the only Izusu was going to be tough, and as I got nowhere near my pb in qual, I was far down the grid. Better start than Roger, getting ahead of him, but then got held up by an incident at T1, allowing him to slip past again. Rest of the race was a battle between the two of us. I was never in a real position to try for a pass, so could only try to put pressure on him, hoping for a mistake, but one never materialized. Well done Roger for not buckling!
Finishing as low as 5th brought Geoffers uncomfortably close in the Championship
, but fortunately still had a few points to spare.
Grats to Geoffers on the two wins, to Clive & Franky on their podiums, and to Geoffers & Clive on 2nd & 3rd in the Championship