These two weren’t the only two dicing in the first half of the race.  Mad made a mistake that had dropped him back to the lower parts of the top 10 and into the hands of the second GRT Acura.  The two Vtec engine cars were rapid down the start straight, regularly side by side, and they were battling like it was for the win, great stuff!  The second RML Development car was also in a great little scrap, with the Pontiac of CelticFox, although both drivers were bit further back than they would have liked.  Another dice that was forming up nicely was for 4th place, as BMR Sutton and Basslinejunkieo were homing in on the Escort of Devil Lord.  Sutton a past winner here, was using all his knowledge and skills to keep the horribly handling Nissan in a straight line, whilst the Lancia of Bass is a former winning car and Bass was loving it, closing in on the pair ahead.  The second Nissan, of Dykey was also looking rather tail happy at the back.  For a while the winner of last season’s round here, was looking like joining his teammate in the battle a head, but a trip to the gravel scuppered that.  So ill was the driver the battle now became about finishing the race, as the car and race started to drain what strength he had left.  Now into the top 10 were the two from the back.  Nikemike had been picking cars off, such was the closeness of the field this was not an easy task, but he found himself running in 8th.  Major Raver had been doing the same and was around 5 seconds behind in the little Alfa, the car slow on the straight but a joy around the back of the circuit.  When it got into clean air for the first time we found out how fast it was, as the DART driver dropped it into a sub 2minute, although a dirty lap.

KinkyCowboys stopped for fuel hoping for the undercut, but he dropped into traffic, then followed by BMR Sutton and RangersRick.  Bradderstig was the last of the top 4 to duck in on lap 15, and this gave Mike a lap in the lead, the Champion again thinking of every way possible to grab a point, something that may prove so valuable at the end of the season to him.  Once everything had settled down Bradderstig was still out front, and Rick was second, but now Rick had some breathing space for the first time in the race, as the pit stops had given Kinky a new battle, with BMR Sutton and Basslinejunkieo.  The GRT Acura driver was over the moon with the peace and admitted after the race that he doubted he could have kept up the defence for the second half of the race, the concentration needed was intense.  Bradderstig reeled off the laps for victory untroubled, whilst Rick did the same for second.  After the race these two found themselves top of the Championship table with only a point separating them. 

So was that it?  No, was the answer.  Everyone else was bang at it.  Kinky and Sutton were fighting hard for third, and Basslinejunkieo was determined to rob them both of it.  The Lancia looked the most balanced, it didn’t quite have the straight-line speed of the other two cars, but Bass knew one mistake and he would grab it with both hands.  Every lap he was waiting for Sutton to go off, the Nissan looked like it wanted to take part in a drift event rather a straight race, but the Wigan driver was impressing all with his car control.  For Kinky he was again battling hard, something that he had been doing all race, but his earlier stop had been his undoing.  Not only had it lost him time in the battle for second, but also he was running longer in this stint on the tyres and they were now starting to go off.  Tyres are always an issue at Mugello, especially at the front and as we started lap 21 Kinky found out to his cost  as he went wide and Bass was through.  He tried to get back through, but Bass flew through the middle section of the lap, and Kinky was now looking over his shoulder instead of what was in front of him.  Raver had rejoined from his stops in 8th, but was really flying, the Alfa passing Nikemike, and then the 6th placed Escort of Devil Lord on lap 20, and he was now homing in on the battle for third.  Raver made short work of the tyre troubled Kinky on lap 23, passing of all places through the left handed fast downhill section that connects the short circuit to the full one.  Raver had 5 second to make up on the squabbling pair in front, and they were really squabbling.  Bass was now in his highest ever Thunder Enduro position in 4th, and wanted to go one better that with a podium.  Twice going into the last lap he had a look, but couldn’t quite get close enough.  BMR Sutton held on right in front of the Lancia, with the little Alfa right behind the pair of them.  For Sutton this was possibly his best drive ever in the Thunder Enduro.  Although he has won races and had many podiums, he has never had to fight a car that handled like the Nissan had for whole race without a mistake.  The team after the race had found a setup issue with the ride height and wondered if this had been the cause of the handling issues.  Bassline was overjoyed with 4th, he had loved the battle and how much confidence the Lancia had given him to push.  The Northern Monkies driver had also impressed earlier in the Beetle race as well, and walked away with his best ever result in the Thunder Enduro, and driver of the day award as well.

Raver was another smiling after the race.  5th from last was impressive, especially with the flu he was suffering, and some of his passes in race were up with the best you will see.  Team mate Wambogini had proved the little Alfa was a great car back home in Italy.  Again lacking time to test, Wambogini found the opening laps a learning experience, and learnt to find a few gravel traps as well, but his pace got stronger as the race went on and he too started passing and moving up through the field, just missing out on 12th place, having had a great late dice with Robraceruk.  For RML Development, it was a hard race.  Some had tipped the Honda’s for the top 5 here, and in the early laps both were fast, especially on the straights, but they ate tyres and none more so than the RWD version of Robs.  Rob managed to win the battle for 12th with Wambogini, but Mad found himself just outside the points in 16th.  The early laps were good to the Tetley sponsored car, but it started to fall back and his battle as spoken of earlier with JRush was highly entertaining.  He will glad for the more AWD friendly circuit of Le Mans next week.  Kinky just managed to win the drag race for 6th with Mike as the two battled across the line.  Mike had been worried about this race, the team and driver not happy with the Mazda, and everything they had tried just seemed to make things worse.  A chat with Bradderstig had given RML some ideas and the car was a lot better come race day, and you sensed the Champion had really enjoyed his drive through the field.  The points are also racking up, and as the winner said after the race, you would be a fool to write Mike off in the championship chase, especially as his Pi is favourable compared to those around him.