I am not a good qualifier. Let’s get that out there. I normally lap faster in races with full fuel and cold tires than I do when trimmed out and pushing hard. So the idea of an inverted grid, or indeed any opportunity not to be victim of my own qualifying, is very welcome. In addition, I get no time to practice for my races, the benefit I have from being able to run a race at the same track back-to-back, is fantastic. By race two I felt very comfortable with the car and track, I just needed to switch tire compound.

After finishing 8th in race one, the grid inversion gave me a very nice 6th-place start for race two. I had switched to the harder tire, and really wanted to make the most of this opportunity.

I got a decent start, expecting another wreck into the first turn, but surprised not to find one. Still, I held 6th for a while, eventually dropping to 7th by the end of lap 1 in what seemed a very evenly matched pack of cars…

Lap 2 saw me going three-wide with Carl Shaw and Neville Britton, gaining me one spot, and within a lap I would sit in 5th-place!

It was pretty constant nose-to-tail racing, and for the first 14 laps it was pretty intense. I had both gained and lost places throughout those laps, ending lap 15 in 7th.

Something I don’t do very often, because I don’t feel fast enough, is defensive driving. When I am on-pace, I do it quite a lot (I hear the A.I. hate me for it). For the first time in a long time I started trying to position my car in the closing laps to make myself a bit difficult to pass. Unfortunately, it always seemed to be Dennis Zimmermann I was doing it to… We traded places in the closing laps, and he finished right behind me as I crossed the line in 7th-place.

Race 2 Highlights.

Delighted with this race, because it was fun. The inverted grid really worked fantastic, and saw some of the cleanest racing I have seen from such a mixed-up starting grid.

Check out the official race report of both races at Simautosport.com.