Round 6 – 48 laps of Westhill International Reverse. That meant the RAC needed to stop for fuel (120% total). The FZ50 has a huge tank capacity to provide enough but was doubtful to last on the tyres.
I’d been practicing this enough over the past week so I ought to have done well…

I had a modest success ballast to carry compared to hannu who was debilitated by 50kg. In the dying seconds of the qualifying I pipped his time by 0.05 seconds (pb) to gain pole. 

Nevertheless, hannu had a better start and was ahead after T1. Going side by side also meant Ghost_CZ had squeezed through by the next turn. I had decided on carrying 80% fuel and was on cold tyres, so wasn’t worried at this stage. I got up to speed over the next lap and regained 2nd position on lap 3, and started pulling away. Hannu was pulling away in front, I was maintaining a similar gap to 3rd. Things were looking good. 

On lap 8 just before the second split my screens went black, NOOOooooo!
I initially thought ‘Not another powercut?’  but realised the lights were still on. A couple of seconds passed and I realised my PC was still on… I moved my mouse and the screens came back on. Had this been the screensaver switching the monitors off? It hadn’t happened before, I moved the mouse every few laps from then on.
The screen came back to life showing me pointing towards a barrier, I don’t know where, only now I lifted my foot off the throttle. Apologies to anyone I might have affected. Checking F10 I was amazed to see that there was no damage, however the clutch damage bar was bright red. By the time I joined the track again, the last driver had passed and my car sounded like a Yugo CVT – had the same performance also 

It took 5 laps of granny driving to get the clutch temperature back down to orange where I could resume with full throttle racing. I was now over 20 seconds behind the last guy (position 17), and I reckon I lost 70 seconds for this incident. I decided to race on. 

Over the next 12 laps I had passed some stragglers and had come upon –willi- in 12th. It took 3 laps to get past him, despite my speed here I can’t pass for toffee!
After a quiet few laps I next caught Dan and Bean0 fighting with each other. It’s not easy passing those FZ50 lardarses and I must admit to getting frustrated. After passing Dan I was next trying on Bean0, but with Dan right behind. At one point I aimed to go left of Bean0 approaching a corner but he closed the door at the very last second, I had to stab the brakes to avoid a collision. So Dan bumps me because of this and I’m fishtailing for control while he takes the position back. Enough of this, time to pit and get that extra fuel.

Rejoining in 12th on lap 29 and I quickly get back to 10th position. Then another long spell of clear track and quick times. I don’t know if I had picked up any engine damage in my incident, but the times were not too far off. On Lap 40 I caught Dan again and made the pass stick since Bean0 wasn’t immediately in front. Past Bean0 on lap 42, and thought I would end up 6th. But I was catching [GR]Evolution, so there was a chance. Lap 47 he went wide at the chicane and I did an ambitious dive to the right, unfortunately we swapped paint which spun me. I thought I would have had another lap to try but hannu had just lapped me so it ended there, with 6th position for me.

A disappointment for all my effort, but not bad I suppose following the incident. 

Still a great effort Gav in the whole event.

I saw on your stats you got the pole, very impressive man!!!  In such a league thats a nice show for you and for T7R!

I'm glad you posted what happened, i watched the race when i had a few minutes and missed what happened with the black screen.  Can only say bad luck as you didn't deserve that! Saw you fight with Dan for a bit, nice driving!

A great comeback from the epic disaster that happened. You must be proud of what you ended up achieving in the end!

Keep it up Gav, you a killer in the RAC! 

Round 7 was 3 weeks ago; 28 laps of Blackwood which I feel is FZ50 biased so 6th grid slot would do nicely. Ghost_CZ ran a little wide on lap 1 so I'm up to 5th. Then I take 4th from niall09 by outbraking him into T1.

The rest of the race was spent within sight of [GR]Evolution but never close enough to attempt a pass. So 26 laps later I finish 4th



Round 8 was the final round, 14 laps of Fern Bay Black at dusk with low wind. I had done a little practice in the preceding week but not many others had - online at least. All my practice had been with the required 32kg ballast also.

In the 15 minute qualification, I can't remember how much wind there was but it did not go smoothly. I got some damage after hitting a wall, and every lap I ended up catching the same guy infront and aborting the quicklap. I was positioned at something like 12th. I had to sit by the trackside so he could get a huge distance in front and then realised I only had one more shot at it before time ran out. Despite my damage I managed to post a pb and jump up to 2nd Hannu had blasted my times while carrying 50kg ballast and with no descernable practice.

On the start grid and the message reads a huge 16mph wind, uh-oh.
This race was one of my most nervous and again things didn't go smoothly. I had to make sure I finished ahead of lococost so that he couldn't take 3rd place in the championship away from me, so I was very careful at the dreaded green chicane. I still made many mistakes as I tackled the wind and slipped down two positions, I didn't care, I just had to bring it home. It took me 5 laps to finally suss out the wind direction and how it affected the braking zones and lines.

The two 3id guys of Vain and DaveWS had been fighting between themselves in front so had not go too far ahead. Vain then found his legs and trotted off into the distance while I began swapping positions with DaveWS. I didn't contest his passing attempts, I just wanted to be careful. Didn't help when I outbraked myself on lap 6!

After about half way I started finding the groove. My practice had resulted in unuseable red tyres after approximately 7 laps, and this was a worry going into the race. But my conservative style meant I had perfect greens throughout. I think DaveWS then struggled with his tyres in the second half of the race, all the while I was getting faster. So I finished 3rd with Vain a distance in front and Hannu another light year in front of him. Hannu had a commanding lead throughout the race, as he has done all championship.

After, I realised that Ghost_CZ couldn't make this race so I think I've nicked 2nd in the championship. This is great considering I had 2 rounds where I didn't finish and another with a mid finish after working from the back - all through my own mistakes. 

You did indeed place 2nd overall Gav, and T7R came 4th in the team championship, which is bloody good considering it was just you racing Gav!!!.

Nice racing with you as always, even if you are always miles ahead

Thx for the race report..I really enjoying reading about my team mates races..