Photo: Toyota Racing Series
Today was Qualifying 1 (to decide the grid for Race 2 at this round given the extra race yesterday), and then Race 2.
After a huge effort by the team last night to get the car repaired and ready to go, the car felt fantastic straight away. On my second last lap near the end of the session I was able to post a 1:00.1 which was enough to take P4. I was really pleased with this result, only 2 tenths off Pole, and just 8 hundredths of a second off P2.
In Race 2 I started well off the line and moved to defend my position into turn 1 and raced through the first half of the first lap holding 4th position. Heading down into the downhill sweeper Petrov who was behind me looked to make a move on my inside as I had been slightly held up by the car ahead. As he did Ptacek hit his inside rear and sent both of them into a spin collecting my car in the process. I managed to evade mostly, so while both of them were out of the race I was able to continue.
Photo: Toyota Racing Series
In the process of evading to the outside, I had lost speed and momentum and was badly out of position for the next sequence of corners which allowed 4 cars to force their way through.
Photo: Toyota Racing Series
I was soon able to make one position back up to 7th, but with damage from the incident to the floor of my car, I then ended up in a battle to defend this position from Cameron Das. I managed to do this successfully for 4 or 5 laps, but eventually he got by and I finished the race in 8th.
Qualifying 2 tomorrow morning to determine the grid for Race 4, and this is followed by Races 3 and 4. Can’t wait to push hard again!