Silverstone Saturday Race 8 Results
Finally found some time to write the review after uploading results on the wiki on Wednesday. Also I realized the day after that I ran a 300 km race instead of a 150 as planned. Oops. So I'll run Race 9 as a 300 too to match up.
So the three works Vauxhall were clearly the class of the field today as Warren Hughes and Robert Huff disposed of James Thompson's pesky Civic from the top three and ran off for the first stint. Hughes got by pole sitter Fabrizio Giovanardi on lap 5 and spend the rest of the stint pulling away from his teammates.
On lap 10, Andy Neate returned to his old tricks by binning his MG at Copse in a rather large shunt, bringing out our first safety car since the Cardiff races. Neate escapes uninjured but it looks likely that Kartworld will be unable to repair his car in time for Sunday's race with heavy damage to the front of the MG.
During the SC period, around half the field made their first stops including Giovanardi, leaving the Vauxhall pair of Hughes and Huff out in front from Thompson, Anthony Reid and the SEAT pair of Colin Turkington and Tom Chilton. Meanwhile in the pits, Luke Hines gets rear ended by wildcard Mat Jackson, causing both to loose several laps in the garage.
Hughes and Huff lead the second stint which unfortunately ended on lap 22 as Hughes suddenly coasted to a stop on the start finish straight with an electrical fault leaving his teammate in the lead from the SEAT pair of Turkington and Chilton who had picked their way past Reid and Thompson along with Alain Menu. Hughes car was left in a dangerous spot which brought out the SC again.
The next stint saw Alain Menu suddenly gain some speed as he made his way to the front, passing Huff for the lead on lap 31. Dan Eaves suffered yet another DNF when his piston broke, wrecking his engine and leaking oil on the circuit and bringing out another SC. More pitstops were made though Menu stayed out along with Turkington, Chilton and Darren Turner. Menu unfortunately lost his chance of victory on the restart as he picked up a puncture meaning he had to follow the SC back into the pits to make a pitstop. Strangely Turkington and Chilton soon followed to make scheduled stops, which makes no sense when just laps earlier they could have made their stops under yellow.
So the final third of the race saw the field spilt between two strategies. Those who pitted under the third SC were left in the lead once the rest of the field eventually made their final stops, some of which just barely fell short of not having to stop again like Matt Neal who lost out on the win by having to pit just three laps from the finish. Those who pitted after the green flag would loose track position but have the advantage of fresher tyres giving us our closest finish of the season. Huff and Giovanardi found themselves back in the lead once Neal finally had to make his stop, the latter just barely missing out on pipping Huff to the win on his fresher rubber.
Thompson made up the podium in third and actually re extended his points lead thanks to Hughes DNF. Reid took his best finish since his 2nd place at Thruxton by coming home 4th, his consistency keeping him up in 4th in the title race. Neal had to settle for 5th after his final splash and dash stop while Darren Turner on a similar strategy scored his best career finish in 6th, in stark contrast to his teammates fortunes.
While Menu dropped to the back of the lead lap after his puncture, eventually recovering to 14th, Gavin Smith ran an impressive race to 7th and even John George came a solid 17th after a brief cameo in the top 10. Satoshi Motoyama managed to take his first top 10 in 8th ahead of the SEAT pair of Turkington and Chilton down in 9th and 10th thanks to their awful strategy meaning that they had to make two green flag stops instead of one like the rest of the field. Finally credit must be giving to Charlie Butler-Henderson and Gareth Howell, both running in the top 5 thanks to running the 'Neal strategy' before their final pitstops dropped them back down the order.
How the hell did that happen, and, more importantly, why can't either of my designated points-scoring drivers do that?
I'm sure he'd whup Turk's arse given equal equipment