Due to the GT-3 6 hour teams event on the following day, we had a pleasingly 'healthy' number of drivers for this round, being 14 in total, which allowed us to run 2 x 7 car races, with plenty of marshals, which made for some great racing.
Heat 1
In this heat, we basically had everyone who had Not previously run in the HSC 'Series', so along with all those who had turned up for the following day's event, it included 2 of our more regular local runners, Darryl & Dale, who had missed the first round of this series.
This proved to be a great race, with virtually the whole field swapping the various positions at some stage behind Kim & Noel, who were motoring along very nicely thank you very much, (as they have so often done in the past),....
Noel got off to a good start to lead going in to the 2nd bracket, with Darryl doing a fine job on Purple to hold onto 3rd but by the end of the bracket, Kim was on the same lap as Noel and as the race progressed, slowly developed and increased his lead over the rest of the field.
Dale, Paul & Darryl, then spent the rest of the race 'tussling' over 3rd, 4th & 5th places, with Dale & Darryl SO Close they finished the last 3 brackets on Exactly the same laps, after finally getting a slight gap on Paul in the 6th bracket.
Ian and Steve were having their own little battle at the tail of the field, also swapping places and finishing only a lap apart to Ian's benefit at the end, with Steve managing to get in some useful practice for the following day.
Kim drove a fine, consistent and fast race to end in 1st, with 326 laps, 5 ahead of Noel, with both Darryl & Dale either being on the same lap or only a lap down on Noel for most of the race and chasing hard behind to end with Darryl JUST getting the advantage over Dale by 0.288 seconds !!! Talk about a close finish !!!,....
Heat 2
This race basically had All the usual regular runners from this year's Series and proved to be a very fast and for most of the field fairly close (but Not as close as the first heat), it was also somewhat eventful and therefore probably Far closer at the front than Cody would have ideally liked !! ...
I managed to get a great fast start and had quite a gap on the field as I rounded the last corner coming onto the straight,.. only to discover that Cody's car, had not moved and Inch !!, with a resultant 'Track Call', (which Wasn't Strictly necessary), as Cody's car was Not impeding the continuing flow of the race as such,.. but I guess could be argued to be OK within the 'Spirit' of friendly racing,..
The car was quickly checked and all seemed ok, so we attempted to continue,.. only to find Cody's car still did not move,.. so again another 'Track Call', which allowed Cody to change Controllers,.. which proved to be the 'Issue', (amazingly a wire had 'departed' the Main board between Practice & the Race),.... so we All finally got going,.. eventually.
I managed to hang on to the lead,.. for a while, being initially followed closely by Wayne, until I got a slight gap with a 42 on Green, with John in 3rd and Cody slowly catching up after being in 5th, to end the 5th bracket on the same lap as Wayne.
Cody managed to then 'Leap-Frog' Both Wayne (on Purple) and myself (on Black) by the end of the 6th bracket to be a lap ahead of me.
Wayne had a slightly Less than ideal run on purpe & black, which allowed Cody & myself to get a bit of a 'break' on him and the rest of our persuers and allowed Mark to also catch Wayne, the two of them remaining on the same lap for the last 2 brackets, both ending with 319 laps, with Mark taking the honours at the finish.
Brad had a bit of a 'shocker' of a run on purple in the 1st bracket and he and Rodney proceeded to the end Never more than a lap apart, both trying hard to catch John, who managed to keep a slight advantage over them to the end.
Try as I might to stay close to Cody in the last few brackets, he was setting a cracking pace, (as can easily be seen in the Race Sheet below), turning a 'brace' of 42's and whilst I managed a 43 in the last bracket, Cody turned a 44, to eventually finish 3 laps up on me with 329.
The Final advantage Cody had over the collective US, could obviously have been at least 2 to 3 laps greater had he not suffered any 'issues' at the start,.... and he was (I would imagine),.. very pleased about the track calls, that allowed him to remedy his initial situation,.. without further undue 'Penalty',.. wink, wink,.. say no more ,... LOL
All in all, both heats had very fast, close & clean racing with so many finishing on the same laps,.. in BOTH races.
After the Quality of these races, we were All looking forward to the following day's event.
What can I say, other than just another great evening's racing at HSC !!!,.. such a SHAME it will SO soon be coming to an End !!!,..