As such a high attrition rate was predicted as Paul Langford and Rouke vd Hoek fought tooth and nail for, what for now at at least, the first and final Legends TWFA Championship.
As always the meeting started with the sprint race and the field of 12 cars was lead away from Pole by Langford. Rouke lined up alongside him on the front row with, newcomer to this series, Simon Baggett lining up 3rd.
From the start Langford led with Rouke right behind as the field streamed through the tricky chicane that forms Turn 1 of this circuit.
Behind, Simon was slow away baulking the right side of the field slightly. The front of the field still got through the corner cleanly but Baz West locked a brake and collided with Graham Palferyman.
Kat Scott (pink car right) was forced to lift both for the yellow and the slow moving West.
Ted Ball (green car) thus was able to pass Scott on the run to T2.
Scott would become the first victim of the curbs spinning down to last. She wouldn't be the last.
The Championship battle wasn't the points battle on with Bret Metcalf and Ralph Maiph also in a tight battle for a good championship finish. They both, ironically, had suffered qualifying penalties so start this race at the back.
By lap 4, with several drivers having spun, Maiph was making good progress and was up to 8th. Bret was just ahead as the pair ran nose to tail.
Marcus Adams became the only retirement a lap later, crashing out, as the field largely settled down. That was until towards the end of lap 8.
Rouke had finally got within range of Paul and attempted to pass him into the hairpin. The pair touched and Paul was able to retain the position.Then at the end of the lap Paul seemed to make a small mistake, the pair touched, Paul half spun. Rouke in a sporting gesture, having briefly passed the yellow car, returned the place as their head for the S/F line.
Roukes challenge in the sprint ended there and then so the championship came down to the final race of the season.
This wasn't the only battle going on, however, as Scott had caught Ball. Her first pass on lap 7 had failed after a mistake two corners after she passed him. One lap later Ball repeated Scott's mistake and with Bret Also hitting late trouble she finished 8th.
Overall an intense fight was brewing, a superb drive by Ralph had put him in the 'box seat' in the battle with Bret while Langford led the battle for the championship.
In the feature a bit of scrabbling off the start left Langford taking to the escape route but the two championship leaders succesfully negotiated the corner in the lead.
Behind some things got a little close but there was no major problems as the field streamed through T1.
A couple of minor incidents happened down the field as it approached the long straight before the hairpin.
As a result Kat Scott was able to make good use of her lower downforce allowed her to move up to 7th.
Into Lap 2 Rouke worked his way past Langford and the championship was fully alive.
Behind newcomer Baggett was all over the back of a fierce battle between Tallini and Palferyman. The Latter became a curb victim onto the main straight spinning into the concrete. Bagget was able to also get past moving up to a strong 3rd pursued by Marcus Adams.
Adams' season has been mixed and another promising run, sadly, would fall by the wayside a few laps later as he spun out of fourth and into retirement.
The next victim of the curbs, on lap 8, was Salvatore Tallini, his stop dropped him down to eighth behind a battle Royale.
Kat Scott was driving smoothly, she'd put in a great start and had genuinely passed Baz West on lap for and was now running fourth.
She didn't have the outright pace of Baz West or Juan Carlos Huate (seen attempting to pass West Right) but her sheer straight line speed and decent lines made it impossible for them to pass her.
Tallini soon caught the battle, as did the hard charging Ralph Maiph. Thinking on his feet, and with a stop needed, the latter dived into the pits as he caught the battle. This gave him clear air and no delay and would pay him well later in the race.
By Lap 15 Tallini had worked his way onto the back of Scott and passed her with another great pass, the Second he'd done on her in two weeks.
Then going into the fast kink Scott made a small error in line, slid into the barrier and lost her nose.
Unfortunately, in what could well have been the incident that settled the championship, her slower return to the pits meant Rouke caught up with her as she entered the pits. No Blue flags were shown as he caught up so quickly and unfortunately was forced to avoid the rear of the pink car and went off. (above).
Shortly after the Ralph/Bret battle was essentially settled as Bret went off losing his nose and forcing a pit for repairs. Despite the problems, the championship battle wasn't over as after their stops Rouke was in sight of his challenger.
Meanwhile Baz and Huarte were still fighting together, now for 6th and 7th but that ended on lap 22 when West spun over a curb and had to pit.
Had Scott not been worried about fuel, he would have dropped to 9th. Scott however had fuel on her mind, West was able to retake the place.
Overall the battles went right down to the wire, passing didn't stop till almost the very end and two entertaining races provided a fitting end to the championship.
Well done to Paul and Rouke for an excellent, fair and clean battle and congratulations to Paul for taking the crown.
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