The Track
For the final round of the 2016 F1 and Mod season Al had laid out an interesting handling track with some rather cheeky twists and turns.
F1
Qualifying
Ray took his fourth F1 pole position of the season, 7.3 laps clear of Nick who lined up second. Al tied with Nick but lost out on total score so took third. Tony was just one and half laps behind Al in fourth. Aston took the fifth grid slot ahead of Paul in sixth. Paul was having a torrid time with his Tyco, he set the fastest lap of the session but found his car’s handling inconsistent which made it difficult to maintain a good pace.
C Final
Paul failed to fix his car’s issues from quali and after just two laps decided to retire from the C Final handing Aston an easy win.
B Final
After a close opening three laps, Al in blue emerged as the early leader. After a promising start Tony succumbed to the tricky yellow lane and dropped back. After a couple of early offs young Aston settled into his groove in red and started piling the pressure on Al by gradually reeling him in. A mid race off for Al left him with just half a lap in hand but he managed to maintain that gap to Aston and take the win. Despite finishing second it was a very impressive drive from Aston and his highest score of the night.
A Final
Al didn’t have the pace in yellow to stay with Nick and Ray and quickly dropped back to a distant third. An early off for Nick in red left Ray in blue with almost a lap in hand. Ray’s pace allowed him to add a couple of seconds to that before an off put the gap back to 4 seconds. Nick cranked up the pace late in the race but it wasn’t enough to change the outcome and a couple of late offs for Nick meant that Ray took the win by 1.9 laps.
After Paul’s disappointing evening Al’s third place was enough for him to take the F1 Championship for the first time.
Mod
Qualifying
After the disappointment of F1, Paul’s mod looked like the class of the field and took pole from Ray by five laps. Al’s car didn’t look at all at home on the track that favoured handling over straight line speed and he had to settle for third place. Tony lined up fourth just eight tenths behind Al and over ten laps ahead of Nick who found himself a bit off the pace. Aston completed the order in sixth.
C Final
Possibly deciding to give Aston a head start, Nick jumped the start. Having a good pace advantage it wasn’t long until Nick caught and passed Aston and went on to take a fairly straight forward win.
B Final
Al got off to a cracking start in blue and start pulling out a lead from Tony in red and Nick in white. Nick retired early in the race after deciding he had fallen back and out of contention. Al then started trying to wind up his pace and take the fastest lap. He couldn’t match the previous fastest lap set by Paul though and crashed rather a lot trying. Despite his many offs Al took the win by 1.6 laps from Tony.
A Final
Paul in blue powered away with the early lead. Ray couldn’t match his initial pace and then found his car starting to slow down. Apparently Ray’s car could only manage four competitive races before overheating and losing speed. Early offs in white for Al left him a fair way back but as the pace drained out of Ray’s car Al caught and passed him to take second. By now Paul was long gone though and took he took the win by a very comfortable 8.9 laps.
The results meant that Al took the Mod Championship for the sixth consecutive year and also retained the combined F1 and Modified Championship. Congratulations to Al!
Thanks to all who attended. Join us for our next meeting on December the 7th!