Rounds 3&4 of the Scottish ST Cup took place last Sunday.
Going into the weekend I was leading the championship, I hoped to maintain that!
In qualifying I managed 3rd position, only 2 tenths from pole and I was fairly happy with that as I didn't get a clear, tidy lap. I either made a small mistake or caught up with a slower car which impeded my times.
Started off Race 1 with a fairly good start, not my best but not too shabby and thought I'd keep 3rd but the guy in 4th got me round the outside of the first corner.
I was confident I could get by him but as the race progressed he was very quick in the straights but was slow through several corners. His defending was very good so I just couldn't get by. However I remember last year passing him on the exit of the hairpin when coming up to lap a slower car, so I thought I'd employ this tactic..
So on the final corner, of the final lap as we were coming up to pass an XR2 I kept to the outside and took a deep, wide line through the corner, he went down the inside and compromised his corner exit speed. I ducked to the inside to kid on I was going to pass on that side but just as he came over to defend, I went on the outside, stayed in 2nd gear as long as I could and beat him to 3rd just as we crossed the line!!
Another position and with it 2 vital championship points. In all honesty my pace was quicker than the lap times showed and I should maybe have been battling further up!
For race 2 I once again lined up in 3rd as that was my finishing position from race 1.
This time I made sure I kept 3rd so I could stay with the leading two through the first lap. Over the start/finish line on to the 2nd lap I thought the 2nd placed driver was waving me by.. turns out after the race he was saying "Let's go for 1st place ST!"...
..Anyway I didn't need a second invitation and I dived up the inside to take 2nd place! As that driver is normally a circuit commentator he was commentating from in car and apparently thought I was crazy, or so he told everyone over the circuit radio!
I then went on to catch the leader and over the next 8 or so laps the gap fluctuated between us. At one point I even un-intenionally gave the lead car a little nudge going into the hairpin.. touring car style!!
The battle was good and I was very happy with my pace to be in such a position fighting for the lead. My fastest lap was 62.533 seconds which actually is my personal best lap time ever round Knockhill - improving the PB seems to be happening a lot so I'm quite chuffed with that.
I didn't manage to get into the lead sadly.. it was going to take a banzai move which would have resulted in a crash so I wasn't for doing that.
2nd was a very good result and was 20 points towards the championship.
The results now mean I am in 2nd in the championship 10 points behind 1st. This will come back to me in further rounds.. hopefully!
Next races are at Knockhill on July 2nd / 3rd.
I'll leave you to enjoy my two race videos..
Race 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebCfN118oBc
Race 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKYlpedaghI