Moderator's Report
Will Tway scores his second win of the season which propels him to third position on the championship table. Will has wisely opted to take a Lotus and carried out a mandatory pitstop after which he rejoined in fourth but the car selection played its advantage and Will was able to reclaim his position by overtaking two Brabhams and a spinning Ian Docherty. Will also claimed the race fastest lap of 1m28.429s.
Bernie Darwin for sure had the biggest grin of all after the race as he claimed another second place and firmly established him self at the top of the table, after overcoming the chassis handicap and driving very quickly and very consistently over the race distance and has bragging rights for the line flatest of all, with an upward tendency.
Bernie has six point advantage over Phil who won't be losing any sleep after the Monza race as he now finally has a low score to drop and can afford him self one more bad race and stll keep the momentum in the title fight.
Ian Docherty climbed onto the final podium position, for the second time this season, and joins the driver brigade with century of points, breathing down the neck of Robert Burton. After Will made his stop, Ian was set to win the race but the pressure of being in the lead seems to have gotten to Ian and he started making mistakes and had a bit of misfortune so lost positions to Will and Bernie.
We welcome back Peter Stenning who on his return did well to finish 4th after qualifying 7th and drove a very consistent race without putting the foot wrong.
Other notable performances were those of Robert Burton who drove a very consistent race, actually the most consistent of all, with his average lap time of 1.31.5 just half a second adrift from his Cooper PB in Monza - very impressive indeed. Ian Stanley did a great job with his BRM, losing his position to Burt with a single mistake with two laps to go. Steve Bird also looked very consistent in his Eagle and seems to have had on of his finest races thus far.
We now head into the mountain course of Lime Rock where chassis handicap won’t be as important as it was in Monza. I noticed a bit of panic amongst the drivers as it’s a new circuit but yours truly will make some efforts and get some links to decent setups and replays for this new track ;) Watch out for the race announcement.
Three races to go and there’s everything to play for. All top 7 drivers on the table still have a mathematical chance of winining the championship but Bernie and Phil remain firm favourites for the top glory and it will be interesting to see if any of the next three drivers can throw them selves into the mix.
Congratulations to Will, Bernie and Ian for their podium finishes.
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Lap 3 - Parabolica
Art finds the quickest way out of Parabolica and hits the concrete wall masked as a hedgehog. Needs a Shift R and doesn`t carry out a Stop and Go to compensate.
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Lap 6 - Parabolica
Art, as if magnetically attracted, revisits the same spot and picks up another Shift R but again doesn`t do a Stop and Go.
This is already a hefty time penalty of one minute, half of that unnecessarily earned not having opted to do a SnG.
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Lap 9 - Curva Grande
Michael Turner is taking Curva Grande at full speed following Phil and Burton. Phil is running out of fuel so leaves the racing line on the exit of Curva Grande and parks to reset. Michael seemingly misinterprets this and seems to want to get some tow and only too late realises that Phil is coming to a halt. There is a slight contact and both drivers are sent into a spin. Phil resets for the reason he initially stopped for and Michael, though without damage, is oddly stuck in the barrier and has to reset in order to be able to continue.
Michael could have avoided Phil entirely (as there was plenty of room to the left) so he is NOT entitled to a no fault Shift R and Stop and Go was required but has not been carried out. A 15 seconds penalty is issued as I will accept that contact with another car was the contributing factor.
Though Michael had nothing to do on the side of the track Phil was stopping on, it is easy to make a mistake judging the speed of the driver ahead, I believe the incident was more down to Phil`s selection of his Shift R location. It is quite dangerous making a Shift R anywhere on the track except the Start-Finish straight which is the widest therefore, less likely to get in the way of other drivers.
Phil noticed the engine was spluttering right from the exit of Parabolica so there was a far better alternative of stopping right there and making a Stop and Go immediatelly afterwards as he was going to pass pits anyway. Caution for Phil here as he was racing under unusual circumstances due to having forgotten to set race fuel.
Its never a good idea to drastically change speed at the exit of fast corners as you can never count on drivers behind maintaining ideal line and it would have been far better to have driven a bit further down towards the left kink towards Lesmo and stop there.
- Michael Turner — Failure to carry out a Stop and Go — 15.000 seconds added
- Phil Thornton — caution — Poor selection of place to make a Shift R
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Lap 12 - Lesmo 1
Phil loses the back end into first Lesmo and Michael tries his best to avoid his spinning car. A slight contact is made but no damage was done and both cars were able to continue.
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Lap 15 - Lesmo 2
Graham oversteers into the second Lesmo and then struggles to regain control while exiting. In these attempts, he weaves left and right accross track and allows Jack behind him to pass him for a position. At the same time, Ian Docherty is following whats happening ahead and misjudges the moment when to lap struggling Graham. Side contact is made and Ian is sent into a spin but no damage was done to either car.
While Graham should have done much better controlling his Eagle attempting to keep Jack behind him, Ian should have chosen a better moment to lap him as he looked obviously unpredictable and out of control. With considerable gap to 2nd placed Bernie`s Brabham, there was no need to go that soon.
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Lap 15 - Start - Finish straight
Phil again runs out of fuel but this time opts to make a pitstop for fuel. He enters the pits and does a Shift R in the pitlane which is considered stopping for fuel and not allowed in Clubmans division. A Stop and Go was still required.
Just to clarify: stopping before pitlane and making a Shift R and then entering pitlane for a Stop and Go is allowed, entering pitlane and Shifting R onto the track does not mean a Stop and Go is no longer required.
- Phil Thornton — Failure to carry out a Stop and Go — 30.000 seconds added
