ROUND 4 - LONG BEACH

Qualifying

Long Beach brought fresh optimism for RaceART Competition after the success of Bathurst. Stephen Cross had been setting competitive lap times prior to the event, and the team looked set for some good results. As qualifying came, the promise began to come into fruitition. Cross didn't quite manage to set the same lap times he had been setting in practice, but still set a good time to qualify in 5th. Alex Davis-Loades was just behind in 6th, and John Eddowes started what would be a great night of racing for him in 10th position, putting him in lobby A for the first time.

Race 1

Due to the nature of the Long Beach street circuit, collisions were expected to be frequent, particularly at the start of the race. Unfortunately for Ale, he was caught up in an incident not of his own doing, and subsequently had to pit for repairs at the end of the opening lap. On the flip side, Stephen benefited from a collision, this one between Dan Austins and one of the CQR cars, which also resulted in pit stops. Eddowes was caught up in a collision too and also made a pitstop. The 16 lap race came and went, and after a successful debut race for Stephen Cross, he scored his first podium for RaceART Competition with a second place finish. Alex Davis-Loades managed to recover into 7th, and John Eddowes finished the first race where he started it, giving him his second best result of the season to date.

Race 2

The second race saw Eddowes start on pole position with a great chance of getting a good result for himself and the team. Alex started just behind in third, and after Cross' podium, he started in 9th. At the start, both John and Alex got away well, and held position into turn 1 and 2. Eddowes kept the lead going through the fountain, but Alex got hit hard from Austins behind and once again received significant enough damage to warrant a pitstop for repairs, ruining his race again. However, Eddowes held the lead on the openong lap, and the nexxt, and the next. In fact he lasted six laps in the lead before CQR's front runners managed to find a way through, leaving Eddowes in 3rd place after lap eight. Stephen Cross had managed to move forward from his 9th place start too and was soon on the tail of Eddowes, and the move was soon made, demoting John out of the podium spot, but putting Cross on course for a second podium of the night. The final laps of the race were pretty straight forward for all drivers, and Cross finished in 3rd place to make him the second highest points scorer on the night. John Eddowes came home in 4th to give his best result of the season, and Alex recovered to 8th after making another pit stop.

Paddock

This was a great event for all drivers, but in particular Stephen Cross who took two podium finishes, and John Eddowes who gave a great performance on his lobby A debut to get a 4th place finish in race 2.

Next up we're off to Spa, and after recently finishing in 3rd place in the Pro GT Championship there, RaceART Competition will be looking to build on that success and the success acheived here at Long Beach, in order to try and gain any ground they can on GT86 Team Championship leaders CQR TRD.