NGT Sprint: Race 9 - Estoril

As this was my last race of the season (I'm going to miss Monza due to holiday), I really wanted to go out on a high. I've really enjoyed my rookie reason in UKGTR, the level of competition has been staggering but on few occasions I've held my own and sneaked a decent result.

I was quietly confident coming up to the race, practice had been going well and my GTank time was looking pretty healthy, and for once I was looking faster than PaulW!

Managed to break my poor run of qualifying with a time 0.5s off my best to put me on to 6th on the grid, just behind [ZiP]Tyf and ahead of truetom.

This being my last chance for points, I was unlikely to better my 8th position in the championship standings but with greg130 and picnic not too far behind, it was important to consolidate.

As the race started, [ZiP]Tyf used the power of his Bi-Turbo for a great start to beat Mike Wrightson to the 1st corner and push up to 4th as I tried to settle in. Hanging on to the back of Mike, I managed to pull away a little from truetom and even to harass Mike on the odd occasion over first 3 laps. As Mike's experience and class began to show though, I slowly lost touch but I wa pretty pleased to stay with him for the short period that I did!

[ZiP]Tyf span through the tricky chicane to allow Mike through and me to close right up. Unfortunately though, not close enough to have a real chance of a pass and soon Tyf was pulling away again slightly.

Mo, who was in 3rd, span out and retired to the pits to leave me in 5th, still not too far from the 3rd & 4th cars. This was going well.

Closing up to Tyf had cost a little bit of time which allowed truetom to catch a little, powering through the chicane, I was a fraction of a second late on the brakes and ran wide into the next left which allowed truetom through for an easy place. Dammit! I was back down to 6th.

It took me another lap to get back into the racing groove but I had a good gap on the 7th placed car so I could afford to be careful and not make a mistake.

Pushing on, with a fair gap behind truetom, I had to hope someone would make a mistake for me to capitalise. Tyf had been struggling on cold tyres and eventually he was the one to crack and left the track again and only managed to re-join after truetom and I has passed him, I was back up to 5th!

A few incident free passes of backmarkers gave me a relatively stress-free last few laps to pick up 5th and a tasty 20 points in the standings.

In the team events, we pulled a few more points out on the Kerb Crawlers to remain 4th but with neither NGTL driver at Monza, that's not looking too safe.

Just got to sit back and wait to see what happens in the last race now but very proud of our efforts in this first season.

A special mention to PaulW's podium finish at Anderstorp - definately the MVP performance of the year!

NGT Sprint: Race 8 - Oschersleben
With my closest rival in the standings, greg130, not taking part in this race, it was a great opportunity to pull ahead.

Despite the return of the dreaded 1FPS bug right at the start of qualifying, I managed to improve my recent qualifying performances with a 10th place. Experience has shown in the previous races that a fairly high attrition rate should see me picking up a few places provided I didn't make any mistakes.

As the race started, I was one place behind Picnic, another fairly close rival in the standings, my plan was simple, stay on the track, pick up some places and try to finish ahead of Picnic.

For the first few lasp, Picnic was pulling away very slightly, I was a little quicker on the first section, he pulling it back plus a little more through the final section. We were pulling away quite quickly from 11th place and behind.

Coming through the tricky left double-apex section, Picnic span to let me through, up into 9th. truetom than also span but recovered to keep a bit of gap between us.

Unfortunately, my usual mistake of 'driving in the mirrors' and trying to defend my position against Picnic instead of just concentrating on driving. Picnic make a super move to get past me and put me down onto 10th again.

I then settled to get back into a rythym and try to claw my way back up to Picnic. Although I was again slowly losing ground Picnic span again to let me through and again truetom lost it but to let me through this time! Up into 8th.

This really put the pressure on though, truetom was a fair bit faster but I'd learned from my ealier mistake against Picnic and defended my line valiantly, coming through the first corner, truetom overcooked it and span out into retirement.

10 minutes to go, time to try to relax and continue to hold off Picnic. Despite a couple of attempts, I was managing to grimly hold on, then with 3 laps to go, got the braking wrong on the last corner, Picnic got it right and outpowered me down the start/finish straight. I managed to hang on behind, attempting to return the pressure but to no avail, a 9th place finish.

Some outstanding driving by the top 10 meant that truetom was the only DNF which was very unusual. The race felt like a bit of a lost opportunty to pull some points away from greg130 but at least Picnic only picked up a couple of points on me and I extended my run of top 10 finishes to 7 races.

Not so rosy in the team standings as I failed to score and the Kerb Crawlers pulled to within 4 points.

Good result for PaulW though, a hard-fought 6th place.