Well, that was a pretty good day's racing - a bit shorter than usual, with so few races, but mostly as entertaining as ever. We were pretty short of forum members to follow, as only the Moon River guys and Barry were out in the XR2s (saw Nick and John in the ICR area a few times, and Derek wandering around the paddock, but no racing for any of them, plus no sign of Norm at all), and Lance was our only representative in the rather small Legends field, although as he introduced us to Gerard McCosh early in the day, we still had two drivers to support!
For all that there were only seven Legends in the field, it was probably the best racing of the day, tbh - there were two new people who didn't do a whole lot, the McMurdos, Lance, Alex Knight and Gerard McCosh (Aly Hunter had intended to race, but had to pull out after he had an accident yesterday, which left him looking like he'd been in a fight with a very solid object, and come off second best
), all of which we thought would probably make for a fairly spread out field, but it didn't turn out that way.
In race one, Alex Knight missed his braking point at the hairpin, and took Lance out of the lead, and while they were getting going again, Ian McMurdo and McCosh got by to take the lead. McMurdo soon dropped back to fourth, but McCosh had a fantastic race and just cleared off into the distance, leaving the rest fighting over second. Lance took it by a clear margin in the end with Knight in third, but I was very impressed by McCosh's speed there
Race two, and Lance led all the way from the start, but it certainly wasn't boring behind him, as McCosh and Knight had a huge fight over second, with McMurdo watching closely, till McCosh took the place, with Knight in third again. The final was more of the same - it started with Lance making a crazy move at the hairpin, going three wide round the outside of both McMurdo and McCosh, which amazingly worked perfectly! Move of the day, if not the season
McCosh didn't want to give up that easily, though, and he and Lance were just passing and repassing each other all the way, with Knight pretty close to them, and looking to take any chances that came his way, too. Lance got the win at the end, but the three of them were all nose to tail over the line. Who needs huge fields with quality racing like that?
Beyond the Legends, things were a little calmer, though not much! The XR2s had some more destrction derby racing, as in race 1, Ian Milton had qualified a brilliant third, but spun off at Duffus. He got going again, a lap down, and was seemingly not in the best frame of mind, as to us watching at the hairpin, it looked as though he simply rammed straight into the back of Bill Carr, pushing him into Alistair Hart. Not only that, but Milton then continued to ram his way through the pack of cars, destroying Hart's driver-side door, before retiring. A lot of people got caught up in that one, which, to my view, was very unnecessary... maybe Milton had a good reason for driving in that way, but it certainly didn't look good
As well as the carnage at the hairpin (which I noticed Neil had a narrow escape from, as he took to the gravel right in front of me!), it looked like three of the Burnbrae cars got involved in the shenanigans at Duffus on lap 1, as Martin vanished, while Robertson and Colville dropped to the back of the field. Meanwhile, at the front it was a Forrest domination, as usual, with Sandy leading from Ian for the first half of the race.
It looked like that result would keep the championship open till race 2, but then Sandy developed some major mechanical problem (don't know what, but the car was crawling on the straights, and couldn't get slowed down enough for the hairpin - maybe stuck in gear?), and dropped back down the field, finally finishing 14th (incidentally, it seemed he was another driver in a bad mood, as he brutally chopped Hart to keep him behind while crossing the line at the end... have to say that move looked a little more robust than was necessary).
Race 2, there were a couple less cars, as some of the damaged cars didn't make it back out, including Sandy Forrest. A few more went missing partway round lap one, and when we got back to the paddock at the end of the day, we found that Barry's car sadly looks rather like John Findlay's did last time out
Similar accident, too, from the sounds of things - it seems Richard Reid spun in the track, and Barry didn't see him until it was too late to avoid a head-on collision... his bonnet is now about a foot shorter than it should be!
It seems like there was a lot of chaos at that point, as we noticed that Andrew Martin, who'd started second to last, was running in 5th place by the time they reached the hairpin
Once the field had got themselves sorted, though, it wasn't the most exciting race, tbh. Ian Forrest dropped some places at the start, so Andy Allan took off in the lead... and stayed there for the rest of the race. Forrest got up to second, but then vanished one lap - we never did find out what happened to him. I think it ended Allan, Knight, Swift, but really, there wasn't a lot happening anywhere. Ian M did well to finish in 14th, and get what I think were his first point of the year - nice one! Neil was running well for a while, too, but I think something went wrong towards the end, as he suddenly went backwards...
Even as the race was ending, the damage wasn't, it seemed, as on the final lap, Henry Lowson completely missed his braking point at the hairpin, going head on into the tyre wall at fairly high speed. The gravel trap did its job enough to slow him, but there was a rather expensive-looking cloud of smoke/steam coming off the engine... ICR are going to have a lot of repair work to do over the close season!
In other races, not a lot happened... FFord got redflagged at the start (no idea why, but Neil Fisher vanished and was never seen again), Saloons and Sportscars had some fairly good racing, but it was its usual confusing self, and the Caterhams had a bit of a battle between Cowie and the Ecurie Ecosse cars, but nothing hugely noticeable happened, tbh
Good day's racing overall, anyway - that Legends final was a great way to end the season, as it has to be one of the best races I've seen. Well done to both Lance and Gerard for their performances all day