'By the Narrowest Margin' - Selective Rogue doubles up

'By the Narrowest Margin' - Selective Rogue doubles up!

The Lobby 3 final at Laguna Seca should have been a walk in the park for Selective Rogue, dominant winner two weeks ago at Road Atlanta. The DB9 seemed to handle well but the Jet Alliance driver complained of slight braking issues that hampered the race effort. Added to this he faced a field of four wheel drive cars, so nerves were certainly on edge at the front of the grid!

Due to problems on the warm up lap, jenson09 started from the back of the grid rather than a disappointing fourth. He felt he hadn't put in as good a performance as he'd hoped during qualifying and the second to last time was a poor result... one look at the time sheets post-race would frustrate him futher!
By turn 2, however, he was in second following a coming together between the Porsche Turbos of TVR Fan and Richy59 allowing him easy passage up the inside. Selective Rogue made best of his grid position and held off the warring Porsches into Turn One, making up ground, only jenson09 in his mirrors. The THR Gallardo sporting it's one off special livery for the recently destroyed Weston super Mare Grand Pier.

For nearly 14 laps the gap would shrink and grow as the two drivers traded off fastest times and pushed each other ahead of the fierce battle for third. Jenson09 was the first to pit, taking advantage of the close lap times and the large gap in traffic behind. Emerging behind CLAY GRYPHON, the THR man had enough clear air to knock together some usful laps. Selective Rogue pitted soon after and swift action fomr his crew meant he would retain the lead once the order was restored. By this point the Aston man held some 260m gap over the rival Gallardo, now in fourth.

TVR Fan and Richy pitted together and continued their battle throughout. Both Porsches evenly matched and neither gaining any significant advantage and the key parts of the circuit. CLAY GRYPHON continued his steady progress, suffering with an ill handling car on a track that requires a neat set up.

But while the two Porsches continued their battle, a silent war was being waged at the front of the field. Where before the pit stops, Selective Rogue had been able to maintain a healthy gap to jenson09 in second, now the gap was slowly dropping, with the THR driver posting increasingly fast times and shaving seconds off the Jet Alliance driver's lead. By lap 23 the gap was minimal, and by 24 the cars were within touching distance exiting the final turn.
On the last lap, jenson09 made a light lunge into Turn One but pulled out when he realised the car was nowhere near close enough. Selective Rogue shut the door, opportunity one gone.
Jenson09 maintained close contact up to the top of the circuit but again failed to make a lunge at the Corkscrew seeing no point in ruining what had been a great race. Opportunity two, gone.
Dropping back down toward the pits, there was nothing between them, the Gallardo held fast, jenson drifing through the penultimate turn. Selective Rogue covered the outside line toward the final turn. Jenson made his lunge hoping to block pass the Aston and cover to the line. Selective Rogue saw the move coming and watched on as the Gallardo drew past and ran slightly wide, enough to allow him to contunie his normal line and draw inside to the flag.
Commeting after the race jenson09 said:
" That win was basically decided by 5 metres of braking. Selective Rogue saw the move but had braked early which made me think I could just about do it. Sadly I ran just wide enough to let him past and get the drive to the line. But it was clos and shows the car has good pace late in the race."

It really was a thrilling race for all involved and bodes well for the rest of the championship that action like this can take place even on the lower lobbies. For Selective Rogue, another lobby victory, for jenson09, his best lobby result this season.
Roll on two weeks and the next exciting event!!

In chronological order.....