Legends TWF1 Jarama Report

An impressive 19 drivers turned up for the sixth round of the Div 1 championship. On Pole was the impressive Ales Simunek buy a substantial 0.457s. A guide of just how impressive that is was shown by the fact that Rick Stratton, in 16th, was 1.8s off from second place.

Ronny was impressive from the go, hounding Ales throughout the lap and taking the lead as the lead pair dragged towards the S/F line. Rouke, however, was the start of the first lap. Seventh on the grid he made the best start and squeezing inside Berti into the second part of T1 he came out 4th.

Bento also made a good start finishing the first lap 14th from the back of the grid. Biggest losers were Dave Hawt, who spun, and Rick Stratton who was unable to avoid the stranded Brabham. Hawt would lose his rear wing in the incident, pit, run last and ultimately be the first retirement on lap 9.

On Lap 2 Costa had an incident approaching the downhill hairpin, clunking the barrier and being forced to pit, dropping to last. A second stop a lap later relegated him to a lonely race at the back of the field.

Up front the front four were running in order, close together, but at this early stage not close enough to really attempt to pass. Further back Jef and Roberto were losing touch already with Bret and Mike Perray just behind.

With such a large field there were battles throughout the field. Paul Langford and Mike Perray were embroiled in the hardest battle, swapping placed regularly during the first 10 laps.

Up front, however, Ronny's race was about to fall apart, but not before Nigel Metcalf had made heavy impact with the T1 barriers. It appears he jinked to avoid the car ahead, spun and lost his rear wing on impact. He would lose two laps as a result of the impact spending the rest of the race on the same lap as Costa.

Further back Rik and Rick were now nose to tail and closing in on a big battle between Denis and Miguel. Miguel had tried to sneak inside Ralph as Denis put a neat pass on him but backed out and spin.

By Lap 10 the lead three were starting to spread a bit although Timo would keep Ales alert throughout the rest of the race. Behind Rouke looked secure but this soon changed as the recovering Ronny started to put intense pressure on the Black and Orange car.

On Lap 16, however, Ronny went missing to be replaced by Jef. For the rest of the race Jef would put intense pressure on the third place car. Going into the last lap he put a demon move on Rouke into Turn one. Sliding inside him between the two segments of the corner he took a deserved third place.

Drive of the day, though, probably should go to Miguel Bento who, despite a spin kept a pretty clean race and from 19th on the grid came home 8th.

The Div 2 race would also be a race in which the driver at the back of the grid, probably, drove the best race overall.

That driver was Ferrari Driver, Kat Scott, and from last on the grid where she was after cancelling her lap time she made a startling start. By the Start finish line she was already past two cars and on the drag to the first corner she was fourth.

This was 3rd by the exit after poleman John Wallace, who had been surprised by Baggett's excellent start from second on the grid then made a mistake into Turn one and ran wide.

In fact early on the grid got very mixed up. Martin Cooper, despite a nudge off Tallini who had made a very optomistic attempt into T1, was fourth with Dave Pym 5th.

Tallini seemed to really enjoy this track and had qualified very well in the FW07. His start, however, was shocking and almost caused an accident when Eric had looked to go round him just as Kat arrived alongside.

The first few laps were incident packed, Tallini spinning and Mark Abbot giving David K a love tap. The Latter, just like Rik Walker in Div 1, was really struggling with the BT48 and although he kept Mark back John Wallace was through.

Simon was looking clear out in front while Kat was holding station just behind Corrado. Then on Lap 3 he spun in T3, dropping down to fourth just ahead of David Pym.

It didn't take long for Simon to retake third and on Lap 5 that became the battle for the lead when Corrado, struggling with his brakes, spun in the downhill hairpin.

Kat now led, for the first time in her GP79 career, and despite unsurprising nervousness she looked fairly secure then. Simon was soon with the yellow Ferrari, but catching was one thing, passing another.

On Lap 9 he tried a pass into Turn 1 but just couldn't make it stick, then on lap 11 he was through. Kat's Ferrari was oversteering slightly, in a manner that she liked, but this possibly caused the rears to warm quicker than the fronts.

A bit of wheel spin and she lost traction, slide sideways into the barrier and he was through. A Second traction issue out of T1 on the next lap would drop her to 3rd.

So at the end of lap 12 Simon was leading by a couple of seconds from John Wallace. Kat first, under no real pressure from a battle between the recovering Tallini and Eric Fulghum.

Cooper had dropped back after Wallace had made a clean pass on him on lap then he spun after contact with Tallini. Tallini does warp a bit due to his ISP connection but seemed to cut back into Coopers line a bit early, he appears to tag the Brabham, lockup a front causing him to run wide.

Cooper tucked neatly back inside but Sal came back at him running into the back of the Brabham before taking the pass on the exit of T1. Cooper was bounced onto the curb and spun no damage was apparant but he was now 7th.

There were now three battles on track. Martin caught and would battle hard with Corrado over the next few laps, Eric and Sal were battling and while David K and Mark Abbot also had a battle going.

John Wallace was catching Simon but a mistake on lap 16, followed by a spin on lap 27, relegated him to having to settle for second place.

Eric and Sal were continuing to battle hard, closing down on the third placed Ferrari at the same time. They, however, weren't mistake free and everytime they got within about 4s one or both would make a mistake.

Katier finally made a mistake, herself, on lap 34 giving Eric hope. He was now clear of Sal, but Kat put her head down and ran 4 of her quickest laps of the race to put 3rd secure as Eric backed off on worn tyres.

Excellent drives from the top three with Simon's crew filling his car properly this time to allow him to take the win after Montreal's disapointment.

A superbly consistant run by Kat netting her probably Driver of the day and second ever Podium.

On the consistant front, the Average Deviation makes interesting reading. Both Simon and Katier registered 0.951 as their Av.Deviation (and unsurprisingly the top two spots. Five drivers were more consistant in Div 1 reflecting the higher standard at that level.

Simon's time would, incidentally, have placed him 9th overall in Div1 1m12 or so off the lead.

With just two rounds left the positions ( UNNOFFICIAL - RICK FEEL FREE TO CORRECT ) are :-

Div 1

1 Timo Peltola 184 (161 after dropping a score)
2 Roberto Berti 175 (155 after dropping a score)
3 Bret Metcalf 165 (147 after dropping a score)

Timo's second place gives him an excellent chance at the championship.

Div 2

1 Eric Fulghum 180 (156 after dropped score)
2 Kat Scott 162 (140 after dropped score)
3 David Kadlcak 156 (135 after dropped score)

Despite losing a few points to Kat in the last couple of races Eric is likely to win the championship. Behind DK will be hoping his BT48 can be made to work around the remaining rounds better than Kat's roaring Ferrari.