Cal meanwhile, was still out front and Kenty still giving chase, but equally the Lotus was slowly catching them both.  On lap 24 Kenty’s attack was slowed, as a back marker went off and rejoined clipping the Hyundai and doing enough to end his charge for victory.  Rob wasn’t in a place to take advantage, his tyre again starting to fade and the Hyundai now had the legs on him.  Cal couldn’t rest easy though, and as per the laps before, drove faultlessly to bring home the Sauber Alfa for its second win, and offering praise to the driver behind him in how hard he was pushed to victory.  Kenty was over the moon with second and the team’s best ever result, but frustrated that his challenge for the win was taken out of his hands.  Rob’s third place was a great start to joining the DARE team, and the driver and team were beaming with it first podium of the series.

Mad’s battle for 5th came to an end on lap 26, as an unsighted backmarker made contact with the Focus sending it into the pitwall and then across the road into the barriers and killing the engine and suspension.  Mad was furious and heartbroken that another great result was lost so late on, certainly no reward for a strong drive.  This left Wambogini clear in 5th and he was closing in on RangerRick in 4th, not enough to challenge, but if the race had an extra 5 laps he would have been all over the Lancia.  This was the best run for the Dublin based driver and it said a lot that he felt it could have been more.  4th for Rick was a brilliant result.  Last week’s winner didn’t have the pace of a week ago, thanks to the Pi, and his fastest lap time showed how brilliantly consistent he had driven.  He is well and truly in the fight for the Class championship honours.  Back in 6th was were all the close entertainment was being served up.  Mike and Bradders were having a truly fantastic battle, Bradders continuously looking for a way past, slight contact on many occasions, but try as he might, he could not get past the Mazda.  They came into the last lap with Major Ravers Ferrari now joining in on the dice.  Out of the third corner and Mike went wide, this allowed Bradders alongside and Raver looking to go through the middle.  Bradders braved the outside of the left hander up the hill and finally grabbed the position, Mike and Raver now side by side, and they both tried to take the left hander on the run to the corkscrew side by side, so nearly pulling it off as well, but a slight touch put Raver on the dirt, and slowed Mike, and this allowed the delighted Kinky to slip through and snatch 7th ahead of Mike.  All 4 had enjoyed the battle and it showed after the race in parc ferme.

BMR Sutton finally sorted his steering issues and ran at a decent pace for the second half of the race, but in truth it wasn’t the result he or the team needed at this stage of the championship, even if Ricks result did cut the gap for KRR in the teams series.  13th was Captain Storer, who was still unhappy with the general handling of the BMW, but had driven a great defence race on his return.  The car will be strong next week at Mugello.  14th fell to Devilsbogeyman who had his best run yet.  The Mercedes was handling well around Laguna Seca, and he drove a near faultless race and his lap times got stronger and stronger..  He was also a happy man afterwards as it rumoured he had signed a deal with BMW to run the i8 next season.  Last of the point scorers in 15th was RGreenwood.  Greenwood lost time early on in some of the carnage with ABigPieKey, and had a decent battle with his old teammate in the other BMW.  Like, Storer, Greenwood now has a quick car for Mugello next week.  16th and 17th and out of the points were two drivers that a week earlier, were on the podium.  Both FKart and CelticFox had terrible races, the former unlucky on lap 4, but then drove a very inconstant race and fell off a few times.  It was a result that didn’t help Cheetah in the team’s championship either.  CelticFox had similar issues early on but found the Viper a real handful and it was a day he would rather forget.  Last on the road was Penfold, who used the race as a test session after his first lap accident, minus any aero he still ran at a decent pace, and it ended up being a very good and a promising race for the DMR Racing team.

Poor Hoppers was another to join Devil Lord and Mad in retirement, the Lotus having electrical issues early on and he could only sit and watch his teammates performance in the other car.  So Mikes lead just keeps getting bigger and bigger, next week at Mugello though it’s going to be a lot of pain for the RML Mazda, but he won’t be alone, Cal now into the 600s himself.  The fast Italian circuit with the long main staright could give the likes of Mad a big opptunity to fight for the win, and the possiblility we might see a new winner?

Championship wise overall, Mikes 80 points gives him plenty of breathing space, but his joint lead in the class battle with RangersRick has all the hallmarks of going down to the last race, as does Team Cheetah’s defence of the team championship.

NIKEMIKERULES with possibly the best pass of the season.