Thursday 24 December 2009

Legends: TWF1 Adelaide Report

With both championships essentially tied up the main battles in the final round were for the minor places and this was especially true of the tight Division 2 contest.

Ales made the best start from second on the grid and comfortably took the lead from champion elect Timo.  On Lap 2, however, Ales put the car in the tyres in the tricky left hander just after Adelaide and dropped to 3rd behind Paul Langford.

Ales wasn't the only visitor of the tyres as Rick Stratton removed his T4's nose and Nigel Metcalf somehow avoided damage as they both visited the tyres. Stratton retired on the spot with terminal damage but he was the second retirement.

On Lap 1 Rouke had made a very uncharacteristic error bouncing off Jef, the Barriers and Timo into Adelaide before retiring with  terminal damage.

So already the field was down to 10 cars, Langford finding himself under pressure from the recovering Ales with a gap back to Baz West who was under a lot of pressure from Ralph and Bret Metcalf.

Bringing up the rear was Jef, how had had to pit for repairs but he was soon on the moving catching a struggling Nigel Metcalf as he drove a superb recovery drive.

On lap 5 Baz became the latest victim of 'Ales Corner' as he spun and lost his rear wing. Pitting for repairs moving the charging Jef up the order.

Up front Langford seemed to outbrake himself a touch allowing Ales through into second on Lap 7 and able to chase down the champion. Behind the lead three Fulvio, Ralph and Bret continued to battle, the three running close changed places frequently and were soon joined around lap 15 by Jef.

He was in no mood to 'take any prisoners' as he neatly dealt with the battling trio over the course of the next three laps and by lap 18 past Ralph, just as the battle became for third as Timo made a very rare mistakes and crashed out at the end of the lap.

The impact with the pit entry removed a wheel and forced him to retire. The retirement didn't matter, however, as despite scoring zero points he still had the title 'in the bag'.

That left Ales in the lead and he cruised to the finish. With only seven cars left in the race, one final pass for position by Fulvio on Ralph on lap 23,  was the only pass for position as the race drew to a gentle close.

The top 5 is believed to be :-

Timo - 224
Ales - 220
Roberto - 195
Bret - 189
Fulvio - 165

Division two also had a champion but there was a ferocious battle for second place. Kat Scott held the place but, hindered by a poor Donnington result, this was far from secure. In fact Martin Cooper was 'in the box seat' for the position especially as Scott would not be able to race.

One driver with an outside chance at the position was Simon Baggett and he duly put his car on pole of the 11 car grid. Too much wheelspin left Fulghum in fourth off the grid after Marot made a superb start but by the laps end he was up to third. 

Martin Cooper took second from third on the grid while Pym had a disaster.  Battling hard with Tallini the pair approached 'Schumacher corner' - the pair touched, Pym spun and was collected by Hocq who had no chance of avoiding the McLaren.

He was soon on a charge passing cars on every lap until he had moved from 11th to 7th at which point he met a wall in the form of Marot.

Marot, driving well, took a few laps to pass by which time there was a gap to Tallini that would take him till about half distance to catch and pass.

Up front Bagget was fairly untroubled although Cooper was doing his best to keep the MaLaren under pressure. Cooper steadily fell back into the clutches of John Wallace, however, and on lap 17 the Bous car passed him for second.

Two laps later Eric was through too but then a battle Royale commences which saw the pair swap places two more times before the champion finally kept the final podium position. Pym rounded out the top five.

The final ( believed) championship top 5 positions are :-


Eric - 222
Martin - 193
Simon - 186
Kat - 186 (4th due to Simon winning more races)
Dave K - 181


Overall too keenly contested championships with some intense battles to the wire and highly memorable drives.







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