A close battle ensued on the track and a nail biting end to a fantastic race at Aviano. Full race report:
Qualifying saw a dominate performance from Olivier Boissel to easily grab pole, with Tippet and Thiago Canola battling for 2nd, with Tippet just edging in front. Another close battle behind saw Andy Graydon pipped to 4th on the grid by Marco Boemi and Hugo Ramos bringing his car to 6th spot.
As the race got underway there was a near jump start from Canola, who managed to stop the car from rolling off the line but it looked as if that compromised his start as Graydon was able to slide up the inside of him into the first corner and made an impressive start from 5th to challenging for 3rd. Canola held his line into turn 1 maintaining 3rd place and set off after Tippet. Graydon made a small mistake running high on the inside curb through the sweeping corners of turns 4 and 5, unsettling his car and into the path of Boemi who braked to avoid contact but just nudged Graydon off track and into the gravel trap.
As Boissel pulled out a decent lead the battles between Tippet and Canola and Graydon and Boemi were exciting. Boemi Managed to pull out a lead over the recovering Graydon initially, then as the race settled in the gap stablized for the majority of the race, with both drivers trading very close laptimes. Lap 5 saw some very close overtaking action between Canola and Tippet, with the latter having to defend hard after a slow exit off of turn 3 which allowed Canola to make a brave run around the outside of Tippet through the fast sweeping corners with Tippet just about holding off the attack through the high speed bends, only for Canola to power off the exit of the corner and take the position and dropping Tippet to 3rd. For the next few laps Canola was able to inch out a gap and lapped with incredible consistency, Tippet managed to close down the gap by lapping marginally faster but then his pace fell off slightly and was not as consistent. Behind the battle for 4th continued at a stale mate until an unfortunate moment for Boemi, as he ran wide in the final corner on lap 15 and mounted the serrated curbs which pitched his car into the wall and damaged the suspension which allowed Graydon to take 4th and dropped Boemi to 5th and a lap down but still ahead of Ramos who had retired his car earlier in the race.
Tippet had begun to pull back some time on Canola, although it was looking unlikely that he would close the gap enough to challenge, when his engine suddenly stopped on the beginning of lap 21, quickly recovering to the pits he dropped back into the sights of Graydon, coming out just in front and having to struggle on the final two laps to keep the podium. Olivier Boissel crossed the line to finish after a brilliant lights to flag victory securing the quickest lap of the race and the first round win. Thiago Canola finished second, 16 seconds down the road from Boissel, with Richard Tippet clinching the final podium spot just 2 seconds ahead of Andy Graydon.
It was a shame there wasn't a full grid of racers, but the racing was excellent. Hopefully there will be a larger number of competitors for Round 2 next Sunday.
Tippet
Qualifying saw a dominate performance from Olivier Boissel to easily grab pole, with Tippet and Thiago Canola battling for 2nd, with Tippet just edging in front. Another close battle behind saw Andy Graydon pipped to 4th on the grid by Marco Boemi and Hugo Ramos bringing his car to 6th spot.
As the race got underway there was a near jump start from Canola, who managed to stop the car from rolling off the line but it looked as if that compromised his start as Graydon was able to slide up the inside of him into the first corner and made an impressive start from 5th to challenging for 3rd. Canola held his line into turn 1 maintaining 3rd place and set off after Tippet. Graydon made a small mistake running high on the inside curb through the sweeping corners of turns 4 and 5, unsettling his car and into the path of Boemi who braked to avoid contact but just nudged Graydon off track and into the gravel trap.
As Boissel pulled out a decent lead the battles between Tippet and Canola and Graydon and Boemi were exciting. Boemi Managed to pull out a lead over the recovering Graydon initially, then as the race settled in the gap stablized for the majority of the race, with both drivers trading very close laptimes. Lap 5 saw some very close overtaking action between Canola and Tippet, with the latter having to defend hard after a slow exit off of turn 3 which allowed Canola to make a brave run around the outside of Tippet through the fast sweeping corners with Tippet just about holding off the attack through the high speed bends, only for Canola to power off the exit of the corner and take the position and dropping Tippet to 3rd. For the next few laps Canola was able to inch out a gap and lapped with incredible consistency, Tippet managed to close down the gap by lapping marginally faster but then his pace fell off slightly and was not as consistent. Behind the battle for 4th continued at a stale mate until an unfortunate moment for Boemi, as he ran wide in the final corner on lap 15 and mounted the serrated curbs which pitched his car into the wall and damaged the suspension which allowed Graydon to take 4th and dropped Boemi to 5th and a lap down but still ahead of Ramos who had retired his car earlier in the race.
Tippet had begun to pull back some time on Canola, although it was looking unlikely that he would close the gap enough to challenge, when his engine suddenly stopped on the beginning of lap 21, quickly recovering to the pits he dropped back into the sights of Graydon, coming out just in front and having to struggle on the final two laps to keep the podium. Olivier Boissel crossed the line to finish after a brilliant lights to flag victory securing the quickest lap of the race and the first round win. Thiago Canola finished second, 16 seconds down the road from Boissel, with Richard Tippet clinching the final podium spot just 2 seconds ahead of Andy Graydon.
It was a shame there wasn't a full grid of racers, but the racing was excellent. Hopefully there will be a larger number of competitors for Round 2 next Sunday.
Tippet