Lap 1, T1 left hander after the rolling start. Cozza in P2 locks his left front (cold brakes, plus the weight of the car transferring to the right hand side), leaving a smoke trail in his wake for Graydon in P3 (and those beyond) to negotiate!
Top 3 on last lap were also the top 3 in the Drivers Championship. All ran out of fuel. I run out last of all, managing to coast across the line and take victory and the Drivers Championship on the very last lap of the season! EPIC FINISH!
First caution came out on Lap 10. Here Graydon, Jackson and Fay pit under caution. But Jackson misses pitbox on cold brakes, ends up in Fay's box, is tapped by Fay into Graydon's rear quarter. 20 seconds of damage repair required! Ouch!!
Lap 57, 3 laps left. T1 at Pocono - you enter at 195 mph. Malanga (middle) was P1 onto main straight. Lamont P2 got a tow and went for the inside. Graydon then got Malanga's tow and went for the outside!! Lamont would take P1, Malanga holding P2.
T12/13 chicane, end of another lap at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. This point would be my downfall today (when not pushing that hard!), but it would also claim others as we would ALL meet up with the Champions Wall!!
Lap 235, 100 miles of green flag running, 1 pitstop, tyre management performed just as planned - chequered flag greets Andy Graydon for his 3rd overall ARCA Stock Car win, and his 2nd in Season 4 ARAIG.
Lap 9, and Pole Position helps me set the pace and slowly but surely create a gap to the cars behind. Green flag all the way, 1 stopping on lap 120 helped a long way towards victory in this 235 lap (100 mile) race around the 0.4 mile Berlin track.
Max 160 litres of fuel for first stint, nice set up leading to good tyre wear, I move from P12 and last on lap 1 to taking P3 (c. lap 22) from Conti, due to leaders pitting earlier. This is the main pit-straight heading into T1 left hander.
Istanbul T1 went a bit awry when Graydon tapped Junior into a spin as they funnelled into T1. Despite being P1 now, I wait for Marcos to rejoin and pass me later on in the lap, actually putting me P12 and last. Led to a great fightback for us both.
Red lights go out, and the GT Pro field burn rubber as they head for T1. The top 3 (Junior; Gorgiev, Graydon) all have great starts, despite some (if not all) carrying heavy fuel loads for this 2 hour enduro.
2 of 2. Having gone side by side through the T11 kink, Graydon's pass for P3 on Conti (with 8 laps to go) is completed under heavy braking for the T12 left hander towards lap end. Brake discs glow under the strain of intense deceleration!
1 of 2. Lap 56, 8 to go. Infamous T11 right hand kink, it's full speed with a wicked bump, but Graydon manages to take P3 from Conti with an adrenalin rush pass attempt on the outside. A lot of trust needed!
Lap 2 and it's time to take advantage of fresh rubber. Malanga would pass leader Lamont (out of shot), I would follow with Grebennikov and Wylie watching from the rear.
Lap 36 and I've dropped from P2 to P5 (last). I take a gamble on no cautions, and aim to pit twice with fresh rubber negating slow pitlane. Failure looks imminent - leader Malanga flies by and I'm not even in my pitbox yet. 1 lap down, soon to be 2!!
NO CAUTION! Lap 53, I'm 1 lap down due to early severe tyre wear and a pitstop for fresh rubber. Out of synch with the rest of the field, I push too hard and lose the rear, hitting the wall hard but managing to keep going in the right direction.
