On a night when champions were crowned, a new-comer stormed to pole position and the temperatures still hadnt risen much since last time out, I found myself back at Teamsport Bristol for the final round of Chase the Ace!
As usual, qualifying quite go to plan and I ended up starting 6th on the grid, lucky not to be 8th after a couple of drivers spun on their single quali laps, and after only managing 6th best time in the five minute practice beforehand, it was always going to be a case of damage limitation, with me trying to hold onto my 4th place in the campionship standings.
The biggest surprise of the session came with newcomer Mike Vowles storming to pole position
As the lights went out, I made a fairly cautious start to the race, not gaining positions as the track bottlenecks under the flyover, but not losing any either, and as things settled down into a rhythm I was able to hang on with the 3rd, 4th and 5th placed drivers. I was behind Darren Peirce who was already getting frustrated chasing the guy in front, so he dived into the pits early on, promoting me up a position.
Its a tactic thats worked well a few times for Darren, giving himself clear track and leapfrogging ahead as other makes their stops later in the race. Ive also benefited from this a few times but you really have to go with a decision to pit early, otherwise you can really lose alot of time in traffic, plus you need to have the pace to make the most of the clear track-something Darren unfortunately has in spades!
Id decided to stop abit further into the race, around lap 25, following abit of a fight with Lee Morris where again I was able to stay close to his rear bumper for a number of laps. Unfortunately after my stop i tumbled back down the order, emerging in 7th place, managing to fight my way back up to 5th before dropping two positions again late on, as an accident and drop in concentration led to two oppurtunistic moves by Oliver Bayani and Ieuan Laraman.
By the time the chequered flag fell on lap 74, 2 laps down on the leader, I was kicking myself for not making the most of the oppurtunites Id had, and also not having the pace to run consistantly with the likes of Lee and Darren. The only positive I could really draw was that I had eventually finished ahead of poleman Mike. My fastest time of the night had been a 36.423, over 1.2's off of race winner and Champion Daniel Morris best time, and with an average lap over a second slower-which left me with some soul searching to do once I got home that evening.
After the engines had long since been switched off on this cold finale in February, the scores were added up and the fantastic Dan Morris was again crowned champion, ahead of hotshot Oliver Bayani, just pipping Lee Morris on account of podium finsihes. I slipped to 5th overall behind Connor Taylor, and just ahead of Darren Pierce who hadnt competed at every round.
Overall 14 drivers had battled it out over six races, and my congratulations goes to Dan and all the other drivers for making each race thouroughly enjoyable. You are all pirates the lot of you!
Next up for me was my first outdoor race of the year, the BRKC round at Hereford, and it couldnt come soon enough..
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