
21-09-2014, 01:57 PM
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Gold Member
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Redhill
Posts: 2,303
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Too much text for one post: here is another one!

David Nordgard won the Touring Car Final. He was fastest in all four heats, seemed to struggle a bit in his Semi Final, but won the Final by a clear margin.
Stephen Bossard won the Super 1600’s. He was denied the win here last year, so nice to see him make the top step of the podium.
Pontus Tidemand was bloody rapid in the second EKS Audi A1 and made the front row of the final. He drove a bit too hard though, which resulted in a puncture and 5th place overall.
Bakkerud won at Lohéac last year (in a LD Motorsport DS3), passing Petter Solberg in the final. Bakkerud didn’t have the best start to the weekend, but he did make it to the top 12. He wasn’t fast enough to make the Finals…
…leaving Reinis Nitiss as the OMSE Ford to beat. This is Reinis first year in Supercars, but you wouldn’t know it from his results. He drove to an excellent second place overall, which now gives him second place in the drivers Championship.
Block came third in his Semi to make it to the back row of the Final. I didn’t think he looked as quick at this stage – and I did wonder if his tyres were knackered by this point as he had been seriously sideways on several occasions – but he drove to a clean fourth and was just behind third place Timmy Hansen.
Both the Hansen Motorsport Peugeot 208’s made the final, but contact between team mates Timmy Hansen and Timur Timerzyanov ended Timur’s race. Timmy raced well, but he couldn’t quite match the pace of the leader when it came to the Final.
Petter Solberg was set to maximum attack at Lohéac last year which, although spectacular to watch, had ultimately cost him victory as his tyres were shot for the Final. Although he didn’t top the time sheets in any of this year’s heats, Petter was never outside the top six and his consistent performance placed him second overall in the intermediate classification. Crucially though, his restraint in the heats left his tyres with more life for the all-important Semi Finals and Finals.
Petter beat Nitiss and Block in his Semi Final, which put him on the front row for the Final.
Nailing the start of the Final – and taking a very tight line into turn one – Petter fended off the advances of Pontus Tidemand and Reinis Nitiss to lead from lights to flag. It was perhaps a little unfair that Timmy Hansen, who had dominated the heats, wasn’t the winner, but it was a well devised strategy from Solberg and a reflection of his more measured approach to rallycross in 2014.
Needless to say (and as you may have guessed from how much I’ve babbled on), it was a bloody brilliant weekend of racing!
We had planned to wrap things up with a visit to the circuit museum on Monday before coming back but, annoyingly (and despite it being the busiest weekend that the circuit hosts all year) the museum closes on Mondays, so we had to give it a miss. We were about to leave when we heard some noise from the track, which turned out to be Ken Block doing passenger laps for various VIP’s. Watching him burn some rubber was a great way to finish off the trip!
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