16 cars drove out of pit lane for qualifying under the lights of the new pit complex that light up the main straight here at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. The quick 15-minute session got underway with We1ty setting the early pace at the head of the field and eventually took pole position. Sadly, I don’t have a grid sheet on hand to get the top 3 from qualifying. The surprise from qualifying however was Nightmare who only qualified in the mid pack. Many would have had him tipped as the early season favourite.

The start of the race saw the most action and also the most confusion as one of the leading cars seemed to suddenly slow down which lead to a number of cars rear ending each other. The two most noticeable being Dead Arm Tzar and Copper Nuts08 both spinning out from it and gaining some front-end damage to their vehicles.

South East Coast Racing’s Copper Nuts08 had this to say about the incident 

“I was heating the tires and getting ready for the start of the race on the right side of the track when the cars in front braked hard and I made contact with Dead Arm Tzar. I locked up all four wheels I couldn’t have done any more. At the end of the day to me it was a racing incident and that’s racing and we still got to the finish and got points towards the championship.”

Dead Arm Tzar from Ardent Racing told us this

“Well that was a strange race. I think the governing body need to look at the start procedures for this series. On the formation lap i was hit from behind, causing suspension and aero damage to the car. The field had slowed down, but it must have caught out Copper, who I guess had nowhere to go. I managed to rejoin way down the order, but my race was effectively over before it had begun. We made the call to stay out and try to managed the situation as best we could as pitting would have dropped us right to the back of the field. For some reason the stewards decided to penalise everyone, which was very odd. Strange incident at the end of the race, MrMarko1100 pitted ahead of me but managed to to be classified above me in the standings. On the whole of it we didn't have the greatest of races but we can only hope for a better result in the next race and onwards.” 

As the lights eventually went green for the race start, things settled down after the first few corners with We1ty, iloveBooSTInnG and ChattyBeast pulling a gap on the rest of the field with a second group of Manuel CR, MrMarko1100 and Nightmare. As the race went on Dead Arm and Copper both managed to climb their way through the pack to join up the second group of cars making it a 5-way fight.

As the race went on the top two began to break away from third place who still held a gap to MrMarko1100 who held 4th until he spun at the back of the circuit dropping back to 6th. With Nightmare and Copper Nuts both having issues it wasn’t long before he caught up with them. Copper moved over for his South East Coast Racing teammate leaving him free to battle against Nightmare. it wasn’t long however until Marko got back past Nightmare.

Towards the end of the race nothing had changed with the top 3. However, the two South East Coast Racing Aston Martins soon came into trouble after noticing they had both short fuelled and would not make the end of the race without a splash and dash. Copper Nuts pitted first as he had less fuel and got his damaged fixed. The following lap Marko pitting for fuel.

As this was happening the 45-minute timer reached zero and We1ty crossed the line to claim the opening win of the season,followed by iloveBooSTInnG and ChattyBeast in third. Nightmare clinched fourth ahead of Marko in fifth and Dead Arm in sixth. 

Following the race, we caught up a number of drivers who told us this

We1ty – Optimum Motorsport

“So going into this race I wasn’t very confident, mainly due to not being able to turn the tires on at night . Myself and the team managed to do some final setup work which helped a lot. My qualifying lap was my fastest ever lap around here so that proves the changes worked. I got a good start in the race and I held the lead early on, and started to pull away from my teammate. I ran wide into turn 2 allowing my teammate past. I caught up to him and we battled for the lead but looking back that wasn’t the best idea as it allowed third place to catch up to us . From then we sat in a train for a little bit. Then chatty got overtaken and spun off, but kept third. Then the second place Porsche had a spin leaving me to take the win.”

IloveBooSTInng – Team CL

“The first two were faster than me, but as they were fighting for first place I was getting closer and closer to them. I made a small mistake which cost me time to the top two and with the best of my tires gone I was struggling to catch back up. My way of running is to be consistent and to force others to make an error. For race two I’m hoping to be able to match the pace of the top 2.”

ChattyBeast – Optimum Motorsport

“It was a good day for me. Especially considered it is my first race in anything like this type of car. I stayed behind my teammate for most of the race trying to learn what I could from him but my worn tires caught me out in the closing stages of the race. It’s still a great result for me and the team and we hope to be able to extend the lead in the team’s championship as we have a couple of tight and twisty tracks coming up which should really suit the Ginetta.”

Nightmare from MBI Racing was heard after the race saying that he was struggling to get heat into his tires hence his lack of pace . Could this be the end of what has been a dominant run for the now GSR veteran and is the pressure getting to much? Only time will tell.

The next round of the series is on week away which sees the series head way down south to New Zealand.

We hope to see you there.