First win for Major Raver and DART ~ CQR Posh Rob boosts championship hopes with fighting drive to second ~ Maj2012 and Pronag impress again.  Best drive of the season for Robraceruk ~ GRT/JDR Integra’s take class fight down to Suzuka ~ Tough race for Cerberus, but they take the team title ~ Some great battles through the field ~ Pronag holds off BMR Sutton to win the Clio Support race.

Lime Rock had made one visit to the TORC events, the opening Classic WTCC and Modsports races in 2018, and the track gave us some great racing that day, and hopes were that it would do so again.  The American circuit was bathed in glorious sunshine and a near full grid as well.  Talk over the past week had mostly been on who was going where and doing what next Season, some already spending more time in new cars, having written off the old.  Some though were still hard at work testing, especially the two at the top of the Championship, Bradderstig who knew he could clinch the title here, and CQR Posh Rob who knew he needed a great day for him and a bad one for his rival.  It was going to be a hard task for the SWR driver, starting at the back of the grid with his teammate, the returning Scarlet Witch, on a track that isn’t the greatest to overtake at.  Pre race testing showed the SWR pair to be fast, but impressive times had also been set by CelticFox in the Quicksilver Pontiac and the two DART Alfa’s.

The support race for the Clio’s was a fun affair, and it went to Pronag Racing, who managed to get a demon getaway from the 4th row of the grid and then lead by the end of lap 1.  BMR Sutton worked hard to try and close him down, but run out of laps, whilst Champion elect Bradderstig was making his way through the field to 4th, after a visit on the grass, on lap 1.

ABigPieKey and CelticFox sat on the front row for the main event, but both had eyes on rows two and three, with the fast starting Pronag and Maj both looking to have the lead into turn one.  Both didn’t disappoint as Pronag tuned in to turn 1 first, Maj slotting in-between the front row pair to outbrake them for second, Piekey holding off Celtic, RangersRick and Major Raver as they went through the esses.  The first corner was a very clean affair, but sadly for Penfold the first lap wasn’t.  One of the major stars at Indianapolis last week, was well up the grid, having qualified 8th, but going on to the back straight he got alongside the Integra of JRush, the hump on the hill catching the JDR driver out slightly and the two touched spinning the Renault Alpine, the ever unlucky Penfold hitting the tyre wall hard.  The pack managed to avoid this, Pronag leading them across the line a second ahead of Maj, ABigPieKey in third, but Celtic threatening, RangersRick having the same behind from Major Raver, with the impressive pair of Mad and Badbeat on their tails.  Celtic was keen to get after the front two and knew the Nissan was already rather lively and on the run down to the last corner on lap two, the Nissan run wide and Celtic was through to third.  Raver was also on the back of the pair, having passed RangersRick in the esses.  Rick was struggling with the Integra already, the low Pi and this not being the best track for AWD cars; he was soon under attack from behind.  Pronag was now making a great escape out front and fellow rookie Maj was also pulling away from those behind, in fact over the first 7 laps, these pair were pulling away comfortable and they were in a class of their own.  Behind them, Celtic was comfortable at first in third, but by lap 7 that had become fourth.  Raver took 2 laps to find a way past the tail happy PieKey and homed in quickly on Celtic, but Celtic wasn’t in the mood for a fight with the little Alfa, and let him past to third.  The Quicksilver driver said “I let him go; he was quicker, I could see by the speed he caught me, and I knew I could get a good result if I drove my own race, no point in wasting seconds in a fight I wouldn’t win”.   Now we had Raver up to third, and he started to close the gap to the top 2, but not by much.  He started lap 8, 3 seconds behind Maj, but the gap to the Subaru was only coming down by the odd tenths.  Then on lap 11 it came down a whole lot more.  Raver was lapping in the low 54s, but the front two’s pace was drifting out into the higher 54s.  Pronag who was comfortable up top, was now looking like he was struggling, and so was Maj, were both the leaders in tyre trouble?  On lap 12 Maj, went wide coming out of the esses and Raver was up to second, a lap later the Alfa dived inside the Audi at turn one to take the lead.  Quickly the DART car escaped, lapping still in the very low 54’s, the other two nearly a second off now.  By lap 17 Raver had taken the gap out to just over 5 seconds, but Pronag and Maj were under pressure from behind.  The two had been caught by Posh Rob, who had been making his way through the field fantastically.  The Subaru BRZ, like the Alfa’s, was far from the fastest cars on the straight, but could carry so much more speed through the corners, and Posh Rob was able to pick off cars that had been understeering wide.  The DART pit crew were hoping that the battle between Pronag and Maj would slow the SWR car down, but Posh Rob was soon past the squabbling pair, in fact Maj, took advantage to pass the Horizon team car as well.  Posh Rob now set off after Major Raver, but the pair were lapping equally, 6 seconds between them.  Back markers around Lime Rock were always going to be a problem, and they fell in the first half of the race kindly for the leader.  Major Raver stayed out longer than a lot of the pack, and jumped the lapped cars whilst they were pitting, for Posh Rob this wasn’t as great as they were starting to rejoin in the gap between the leading pair.  Lap 27, and with the gap still at 6 second, Posh Rob lost time, as contact between the battling for position pair of BMR Sutton and RotaryRhys, caused the Subaru to go wide at the last corner, avoiding the walls, but costing him 2 seconds in his pursuit.  The margins were so fine.  Posh Rob was so keen to keep the pressure on Raver, who in the past had blown some decent results, was mistakes, that he believed he could force the Alfa driver into making an error here.