French Resistance

The Touring Cars were at Magny-Cours this week and the drivers put on a show not to be forgotten. In qualifying Dave showed his double win at Monza was no fluke by blitzing the field, but 2nd to 6th were separated by less than 0.2. A technical issue saw the qualifying results scrapped and the first race started with random grid positions.

Dave got his customary great start and immediately started to open a gap. Behind him Chris managed to slot into 2nd followed by Kim, Shayne and Andre. Shayne and Andre mugged Kim early on and all 3 closed down Chris to start an intense battle for 2nd place using all the road and abusing the tyres. Shayne managed a great pass in T2 to take the place, but Chris and Andre were right back in the fight with a layer of paint separating the 3 cars. Chris finally managed to get back into 2nd then put his Accord into the wall exiting the last turn taking him out of the fight. Shayne, Andre and Kim, all in similar SEAT Leons carried on the fun until the end of the race, which was won by Dave with Shayne 2nd and Andre 3rd.

Race 2 was a different story with Arno getting his Peugeot 407 into T1 in the lead from pole, followed by Chris and Dave. Chris made a move into the Adelaide hairpin for the lead but before 2nd could be sorted Shayne arrived with locked wheels and collided with Andre who then slid into Arno. This let Chris and Dave followed by Kim get away from the pack early on. Chris was driving a defensive race, using the low speed advantage of his Accord to counter the slight power advantage of Daves BMW. Dave made 3 attempts to get past at Adelaide, finally making the 3rd one stick and was then able to open a small gap - it looked as if he was going to be able to cruise to a 4th successive victory until an uncharacteristic spin at 180 allowed Chris to close right up. Chris could smell a win and tried everything to get past, but Dave held it together until the end to take a well deserved win ahead of Chris and Kim.

There is now a 2 week break before the drivers again meet, at the classic Touring Car track Brands Hatch - an event not to be missed!