Drivers tempers were heated after the two action packed races that made up the Suzuka round of the TWFA championship. This challenging track proved to be as tricky in an Atlantic car as in a 2009 F1 car with several drivers doing a 'Heiki' or 'Weber' as Degner 1 claimed it's fair share of victims.
Rouke took a mighty impressive pole from Thomas and Roberto. Rouke drove into the lead after a perfect stop while Thomas slotted in behind. Berti took third without trouble while Paul Langford got the jump on Juan Carlos Huarte to take fourth. Behind the lead five, however, there was chaos.
Tallini got into the back of Martin Cooper who span out onto the gravel. Tallini bounced left and cannoned into Maiph who lost his front wing. Dom Scott slowed for the Yellows while Ivor took the chance to 'pass under yellow' and went round the outside of the Pink Car.
Then Degner claimed it's first victims. Both Marcus Adams and Tallini spun, the latter losing his wing. Then to Cap it all, Scott tried to pass Ivor into Degner 2. Ivor took a line that would probably have cut Degner 2 and collided with the car alongside.
So at the end of the first lap, with the top 5 settled, 6th was Johnson up from 10th, Baz West, Steve Shelley who had passed Metcalf on the run up to the Degner 1.Ivor Blackmore in 10th ahead of myself with the recovering Marcus Adams behind.
Steve Shelley, who was briefly 6th, was on a charge having lost two places on lap 1 on the run from Spoon, he retook 7th with a lovely pass approaching Spoon turn.
Behind them I finally got past Ivor in spoon only to lose two placs with a quick spin in degner 1 as the curb claimed another victim and I dropped to 12th.
By now Two things where happening. Steve Shelley was continuing his charge while the battle for 11th was heating up dramatically.
On lap 3 Steve reached 6th with a pass on Neill who started to fall back down the field. While behind Marcus was crawling all over my back. He tried a pass on Lap 3, then again on Lap 4 - during which time we'd both passed Ivor. The second, successful, pass attempt resulted in several bangs and bumps as well as Marcus taking to the grass.
Lap 5 Juan spun in T2 and Steve gratefully took the place. At the same time Bret was passing the struggling Johnson on the run to T1. A couple more spins rounded out an action packed race.
After such an action packed sprint race, would the Feature be just as hard fought? The answer was an unequivocal yes.
The first lap was a lot less frantic than the first race although Neill Johnson did run wide in 130R after minor contact with Steve Shelley. Johnson was forced to pit for a new nose. Rouke led but soon Thomas was in trouble. He ran wide exiting spoon corner and dropped to seventh as Steve Shelley started another charge through the field.
The front 7 continued to circulate closely with Bret Metcalf and Baz West embroiled in their own battle just behind. Martin Cooper was in 10th with Ralph Maiph recovering from a slow start passing him on lap three.
Lap four saw the leader spin, Rouke losing six places as he rotated in 130R and was extremely fortunate to be able to rejoin in seventh with minimal damage. How Huarte didn't end up with a wrecked car is beyond me as lag seemed to save both. (see above)
Marcus Adams was the first driver to stop for his scheduled stop pulling into the pits on lap 10 and rejoining in 11th, which became 10th a lap later when Cooper Stopped. Most of the leaders stopped on laps 13 and 14 but Bret Metcalf and Stever Shelley both ran quite long to lap 18.
They weren't the last to pit, however, as I had run with a full tank from the start, this probably cost me a few seconds with a heavy tank earlier on but by half distance I had the edge on pace over Martin behind me. I had been unable to really close in on Ted consistantly but after his stop, on lap 12, I got into a groove and felt confident of passing him with my ultra short stop.
Meanwhile Thomas was the next driver to hit trouble. He pitted on lap 13 then again on 16. The reason for the two stops isn't clear unless he had a stop go for speeding. That brought him out 20s behind me and some awsomely quick times meant he jumped to 11th when I stopped.
The dying laps still had time for two piece of drama. On lap 24 I spun in dunlop and infortunatly Ivor, a lap down on me, just snagged my car. Ivor retired while my car was fairly undamaged and I was able to cruise to the end. I apologised to him after the race as it was a silly mistake on my part that caused the spin. Then to cap a crazy race Marcus ran out of fuel on the last lap retiring in 130R.
Excellent recovery race by Rouke and two excellent climbs through the field by Steve Shelley provided the highlights of two highly exciting races.
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