What was surprising was the lack of pit stops at the end of that first lap, obviously the battered BMR Sutton was in first in, but his teammate didn’t need to, although his woes were far from over on the first lap, as RGreenwood got it all wrong down the back straight and took them both down the escape road, the KRR driver glad it wasn’t a wall as the impact would have been race ending.  RGreenwood then returned to the track with lit up wheels and smacked into the side of the debuting EmpireMSport.  Not the best few seconds in his career for the Team Hard driver.  Out front and Kinky was away and driving brilliantly, the gap to the Hoppers R&D car growing by over half a second a lap.  Posh Rob was looking comfortable in third, chased by CelticFox.  At first he was under pressure from Basslinejunkieo who fancied his chances here, but an error saw him pick up damage after a scary spin at over 140mph on the start straight and with it a stop that dropped him back through the field.  Behind them and Devil Lord had had a superb opening lap and Nikemike was also in the mix but complaining of a lack of straight line speed once again, and not sure on last minute set up changes to the Mazda.   Also up in the top 10 were Robraceruk, amazingly RangersRick and the top 3 in AM, as Penfold led Hoppers and Badbeat.   For round 1 winner Bradderstig it was a complete disaster, as he was the most heavily damaged and crawled to the pits, rejoining a lap down and behind most of the field on track as well.  It was going to be a painful day for the second Cerberus car.

The front three were busy eking out a gap to each other, the battle for fourth being the most entertaining, as Celtic, Mike and Devil Lord were hard at it.  Devil was having a lot happier time in the Escort than he had last week and was looking like his old self, but he had to pit on lap 7 for a quick stop which dropped him back.  The two GRT cars were now running next, Rick was carrying some damage and trying to hold the car together until his stop, where as it was all going wrong for teammate JRush who had a problem into Holliday’s again that left him needing to make an extra stop.  This had left Robraceruk next up and slightly on his own for a bit, although his rival from last week Major Raver, was chasing him down.  Raver had been stuck in the early laps behind the second RML Honda of Mad and had the same problem of last week that the V-Tech engine is miles faster on a straight.  Once he was through he was soon able to get away the Alfa mega on the brakes and in the corners once again.  AM was now being led by Badbeat, who was driving fantastically in the Lancia and in the top 15, but it wasn’t the dominance that we have seen in the class this season, as Penfold wasn’t far behind and was loving the new and improved Alpine.  Pronag was running third in the class, the Audi handling well but it had even has less straight-line speed than the Alfa.  For Devilsboogeyman, it was a difficult race in the front wheel drive Honda, the car locking up and struggling with a bit of front end understeer, but he was comfortably ahead of Hoppers in the Clio, who had slipped back after a promising first lap.

Most eyes were on the recovering runners, some showing strong pace.  J47TEE had lost a lot of time with his extra stop but was now lapping at a good pace, but a lap down.  BMR Sutton was having a terrible time, and lap 12 saw his second stop of what turned into a three stop race, where as team mate ABigPie was running pretty well and had got himself into the top 10, and once passed Robraceruk he set off after the battle between CelticFox and Nikemike.  Kinky had this in the bag, Atomstew was aware from early on that the Cerberus car had the pace and he was playing the sensible game of bagging the points and also hoping for an error from the leader.  Posh Rob had the same approach in third and was taking no chances, in the belief that he was clear from those behind, but unbeknown to them both, someone’s true pace was being masked.  The battle between Celtic and Mike was still raging on and they had become a three with ABigPieKey now with them.  Mike pitted first on lap 17 and Celtic a lap later, these two once again joined at the hip, but this worked a treat for the KRR Nissan which had plenty of torque around Long Beach and it allowed PieKey to stop a lap later and rejoin a head, and it took him no time to get away.  All of a sudden we had a driver lapping at the same pace as the leader, and PieKey was now closing down the Subaru in third.  On lap 28 he was right on the tail of the championship leader, and the Subaru had no answer down the main straight for the Nissan, the 370z through comfortably before turning into Holliday’s.  Now could he catch the second place car?  The gap was coming down, and so were the laps, that although he made up 12 seconds, he couldn’t make the final three and he had to settle for third place.  The leader meanwhile was untroubled by all this, and was driving faultlessly, and Kinky crossed the line to win his first ever race.  One joker in the paddock, said with a smile, one Cerberus car in the wall, the other driving a perfect race, had Bradderstig and Kinkycowboys swapped cars?  When the winner arrived in the pitlane there was no doubt it was Kinky, the Michael Fish look alike, the smile and delight clear to see and to be fair the pitlane was overjoyed to see the popular racer break his duck and in style.  For team mate Bradderstig it was a terrible day, stuff of nightmares.  He hoped to not stop again, but needed a splash and dash that left him down in 17th at the end of the race.