The Cosworth cars were lucky to hit 180 without effects of a tow but those cars would look so much more comfortable around the tight twists of the back end of this circuit that is full of contrast.
Pole went to one of those Cosworth's in the hands of Rouke, with Simon Baggett lining up second ahead of Timo and Leo Menegucci. Rouke made the best of the start with Timo jumping Baggett into second with Leo and Corrado keeping grid order.
Slightly further back, however, with a massive field of 26 cars the inevitable happened and someone touched. Bret had made an horrendous starting, skewing across the track then into T1 he locked up and slid into Costa. Langford and Marot were also involved although non of the car seemed to pick up much damage.
The field, however, was getting very congested now and into T1 Ivor made the same mistake and slid into the back of Fulvio, who was punted into the paths of Scott and Jones. Several other cars were lucky not to get involved the Jones ended up having to take a slightly scenic route as a result.
Two further incidents brightened up the first lap. Phil Carroll threw his car off the road avoiding Costa approaching the hairpin and Tallini managed to remodel his Ferrari towards the end of the lap. Tallini's car, minus a wheel, would retire at the end of the lap while the remaining cars streamed round to complete the lap.
John Wallace was the biggest improver in that lap running 8th from 18th on the grid between Bret and Miguel who were battling hard over 6th spot.
Up front the order looked fairly stable with Timo tracking Rouke. Leo, Simon and Corrado all holding station but on lap three Bret moved up to fifth. He worked his way past Bento when the latter spun under braking for the hairpin.
On Lap 6 Rouke lost the lead to Timo but that was far from the end of the battle and as the field approached lap 13 the action ramped up a level. The cause of the action was the removal, on the previous lap, of the 200m board causing drivers to brake too later for the corner.
Timo, Leo, Simon, Kat, John, Miguel, Corrado and others all missing their braking points to a greater or lesser extent.
Big losers caused by the missing board included John and Corrado, while Ivor probably took the biggest journey off road. At the end of Lap 16 therefore, Rouke was back in front from Timo, Leo , Simon and Bret. Fulvio was next up and starting to make good progress through the field while John Wallace was about to Retire.
He became the 5th retirement, before half distance, with Nigel, Kat, Shazy also joining Tallini in the Nill points column.
Up front it was clear Timo had the edge on pace, driving impressively quickly but Rouke had the lead and a battle Royale was developing. The lead swapped, and swapped again.. Rouke refusing to give up then on lap 23 Timo got it all right, drafting Rouke down the main straight Rouke went defensive. Off line he braked a touch early, Timo braver on the brakes swept round the outside the the race was his for the taking.
Take it he did, pulling steadily away to register an impressive win. Leo held onto third from Timo with Fulvio finishing an impressive fifth.
Overall an interesting race with a huge field that produced incident, excitement and resulted in the majority of the field taking at least one trip off the track.
Driver of the day? Well some good performances, Patrick Dobner started from the back and finished 11th so scores highly, Larry Thomas had a quiet race but one of his best to date. Fulvio also had a solid race while Timo was might impressive with Rouke being Tenacious throughout.
I think ultimately Timo deserves it, he lost the lead several times, never gave up and had a mighty impressive pace.
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