Season 2 - NGT Sprint race 1: Barcelona

With season 1 all but a distant memory it's a brand new shiny start back to Barcelona to kick off the new season.

The entry list for season 2 is looking worryingly strong so despite some hard practice during the off-season, I reckon I'll do well to hold my own and finish as high as I did in season 1 (9th if you are interested!).

Barcelona's never bee a happy hunting ground though, as witnessed by my 19th place finish in this event last season. The 1FPS bug tends to always bite here too but I was pinning my hopes on a fix to sort that out (it worked - hurrah!).

Qualifying has always been a weakness but I was delighted (and somewhat amazed) to be lying in 6th on the grid with a new PB and just a couple of minutes to go in qualifying. Went to get a drink only to find PaulW had pipped me with just a few seconds to go! Bah! Still, I'm glad it was a teammate rather than someone else.

So, I was in 7th and new addition Mark Jonzo a tremendous 10th, all three in the top ten. Good going NGT Legends!

The race started badly... Greg130 got the jump on us from 8th with a well timed run on the long start/finish straight, overtaking both PaulW & I. PaulW then went wide on cold tyres a couple of corners later to let me nick through and re-take 7th.

The game was on. Greg130 wasn't pulling away and PaulW was bearing down on me, we were very closely matched. Fate decided to intervene however with Edza experiencing technical problems and his stationary car left mid-track. Greg & I somehow avoided him but PaulW wasn't so lucky going off in spectacular fashion (as viewed from my rear-view). I was amazed he could carry on.

My pursuit of Greg continued, less than 0.5s separated us but he wasn't putting a wheel wrong, despite a few tentative stabs, there was no opportunity to try a passing move. After 20mins my obligatory unforced error, I missed my braking point by a fraction, over-corrected and span, watching Greg disappear into the distance.

As we'd pulled out quite a distance over the 8th place driver, I was able to safely re-join in 7th despite my over-heated tyres.

Rich_A was catching me from 8th though and as we came up to some back-markers I was very concious of this. Trying to get a good run on Tom Cooper for an overtaking move on the start/finish straight I misjudged it, realised I was going to nudge him, over-braked and left the track again to let Rich through. Very disappoining as both mistakes were entirely down to me.

No more incidents saw me finish 8th, a considerable improvement on last seasons 19th! A couple of team points into the bargain made for a satisfactory night's racing.

Endurance Div.2: Race 6 - Spa race report

After missing race 5 at Donington I was in a bit of a hole championship-wise lying in 3rd with Dave Gymer (1st) and [ZiP]Tyf (2nd) quite a few points ahead of me.

Spa is a special 90 minute race (60 minutes usually) so a pit-stop is pretty much a necessity in an NGT.

With Tyf not taking part, this was a real opportunity to close the gap, and maybe even on Dave Gymer.

I set myself a target of sub 2:24 in qualifying and it wasn't looking too good for the first 35 mins of qualifying. With just 10 mins left I finally put it together and took NGT pole with a nice lap of 2:23.9, over a second quicker than my qualifying time in the NGT Sprint series. Improvement!

Sadly, there were only 5 NGT's on the start grid as once again a pretty poor Div. 2 turnout kinda spoiled the atmosphere a little.

Still, my first NGT pole, and that wasn't going to spoil it! Dave was only one spot behind and Jamera one further back, we were pretty close in qualifying, would my strategy work?

A nice smooth parade lap got the tyres up to speed and we're away. Immediately, I'm pulling away from Dave! Two seconds on lap 1, the gaps up to six seconds on lap 2, something's not right, it shouldn't be this easy...

Turns out Dave's internet connection is playing up causing him to 'lag' badly, causing problems for him and the cars behind. This is unknown to me while I'm pulling out a very nice lead.

Eventually, Dave has to disconnect after 20mins, his connection is just not up to the job tonight. A real pity, it could have been a super contest.

I've never really been in the lead in a race before and couldn't envisage just how stressful it is! Concentration is at a premium, especially at a fast track like Spa. Don't mess up, don't mess up....

I drove pretty hard for the first 45mins and was 50s up on Jamera coming in to my scheduled pit-stop. Pitting takes an *age* at Spa because of the extra long pit lane. I eventually came out just behind Jamera and was praying he was also on a single stop strategy.

I didn't have long to wait as Jamera pitted on the next lap for me to regain the NGT lead. Phew!

Had a bit of a sticky moment when Luis Branco's BMW engine exploded, filling the track with black smoke reducing visibility considerably. Luis had sensibly pulled to the side of the track and I managed to pass with no incident.

Jamera seemed to slow after his stop so I gradually pulled out to over a minute's lead when I admit the nerves really started to get to me and I slowed considerably not wanting to do anything stupid and throw away the win.

Under very little pressure for the last 30 mins I brought it home nice and easy for the win, feeling great and like the countless hours of practice had finally paid off!

I'll need another race or two like that to really put the pressure on Dave for the championship lead but you never know and there's 4 races left...