After last months penultimate round of the Gulf Radical Cup I found myself with a significant deficit in the championship, behind Team Bahrain 777, after leading it for pretty much the whole season. After a series of mistakes and inconsistent performances I found myself in a position where I had to have a perfect weekend where I scored maximum points for pole position, double race wins and double fastest race laps. No pressure then. Despite it being a long shot, it was doable and as they say it's not over till the fat lady sings.

After the previous struggles with engine cooling and last months airflow modifications (evo 016) a more permanent solution was installed in the shape of a bigger higher flow water pump that should theoretically improve the efficiency of the 'Carbon Creation' SR3's heat exchanger. This proved highly effective, as despite the ambient temperatures of close to 40 C on the Thursday testing session both the water and oil temperatures on my data display remained were they should be. Good news.

Back to the task at hand and things had gotten off to a good start with my name at the top of the list for all practice sessions. Into qualifying and the trend continued with me on pole by half a second from Lumina CSV champion Fahad Al Musalam, Team 777's driver this weekend. So far, so good. At the start of race one I am immediately put on my back foot as I miss a gear change and drop to second behind Fahad and for the rest of the race, try as I might I could not find a way past him despite my superior pace and setting fastest lap along the way. Fahad, once again soaked up all the pressure I could apply demonstrating his penchant for defensive driving. The fat lady had sung. Race 2 was a bit of a disaster. With nothing to lose I went for a radical (no pun intended) set up change which made the SR3 wildly oversteery. After a hairy first corner I take the lead but am struggling very badly with an unstable car. I am able to hold off Fahad for about 5 laps, but a big slide coming onto the main straight loses me the lead. I steadily drop back as I grapple with my wayward race car to finish a distant second. Not exactly the way I had hoped to end what has been a memorable season for me. Nevertheless I would like to congratulate the Bahrain team on their championship, which they thoroughly deserved. 

Later that evening at the end of season prize giving, I pick up the award for the seasons most improved driver and the (in jest) award for always being the last to arrive on race day, to go along with my runner up trophy. Hopefully next year I can move up one more step on the ladder. I have the whole summer to get prepared.