8 hours into the race and it seems like everybody has done their driver swaps now, except for Lucas in the TSR, who seems to have changed his mind about driving alone, waiting for his friend to arrive he is a bit late, but now he has finally taken over the wheel and even the TSR is away. Some of the drivers seems to need some time to learn, tires are slipping on both the Oldman, the Matteo, the Nohda and the Suzume. The strange flames out of the Espyo exhaust seems to be coming and going, and the Birmingham seems to be facing some small problems too.
Especially Darren in the Oldman and Fuzz in the Suzume looks like they could have used a little more training since now both cars are skidding off the track. The Birmingham, the Revero and the PMI also seems to have a hard time in some of the bends.
Talking about the PMI, it faces the same problem again as some of the other cars, a sudden misfire and power coming back to quickly results in wheelspin, the Oldman, Birmingham and Revero is once again facing problems, and it seems like Amy Storm also is in some trouble learning the kind of weird handling in the Minerva which is slipping and sliding a bit. Some of the faster cars, the Nohda, the Ferrain, the Caliban and the Espyo seems to take the bends with too high speed, which puts them into trouble too. The next car to skid off the track is the AAAA, causing the bonnet to burst open, maybe a result of the earlier crash damage, but it locks again when falling down and Dave can continue the race quickly again.
It seems like the crash did something to the drivers door too, which flies open in a curve, but Dave manages to get that one closed again just before it gets hit by the spinning Nohda, talk about luck. We hear some misfiring from the Keika, but what’s even worse is that both the Suzume and the Minerva seems to be reaching a bend with way too high speed, we now see the difference between the cars, the Suzume oversteers and skids out of the grass while the Minerva is plowing forward and BANG! there it hits the Erin in its rear door! Both cars are a quite sad sight afterwards, the Erin probably has to go into the pits for a while to get the door strapped in place since the lock seems to have been damaged, making the door burst open and hanging on the crooked hinges while the Minervas bumper almost are touching the front tyres, making it a slow ride back into the pits. But we think that a repair still might be possible. Meanwhile out on the grass the stalled Suzume refuses to start, but believe it or not, Fuzz is beating hard on the dashboard and the engine comes alive as lively as ever before, I bet that car has some really dodgy electrics! Learning nothing from the Minervas and the Suzumes mistake, the next car to spin out is the Revero.
Something might have happened to the Erins rear suspension in the crash since it’s wagging its tail a bit coming out from the pits. At the same time Amy Storm seems to have a hard time even getting OUT of the pits with the Minerva, constantly getting the car into reverse. Finally coming back on the track, she nearly hits Pete Owens in the Sakura, causing some heavy skidding for both of the cars trying to avoid a crash. Being quite free from trouble this far, the LSV Buccaneer comes tail first into a curve, which ends out on the grass, shortly after comes the Suzume and one can really wonder when Fuzz is going to learn about how that car handles. After one of the countless refuellings of the Revero it misfires for a while, may be some contaminated fuel, but it finally stops and the Revero can continue as usual.
It seems like Amy have learned how to handle the Minerva now, slowing down before the curves, but one that’s not slowing down is Alejandro Gutierrez in the Caliban, driving straight into the back of the Minerva! Once again, the tank-like construction of the Minerva seems to have saved the car, while the home-made wood paneling on the Caliban shatters into pieces. The Oldman and Sakura swerwes to avoid getting flying wood debris in the windshield, so does the LSV Buccaneer but with less luck than the competitors since the Buccaneer ends up buried a far bit into the barrier, resulting in a visit to the pits for the LSV as well as for the Caliban.
The next one to get in trouble because of the shattered wood is Larry Hansen in the IP. Getting a flat rear tire from a screw remaining in a piece on the track, the back end of the IP goes sideways into the guardrail, sending even the IP into the pits for a while. A bit ahead we hear the familiar grinding sound of the Erin gearbox, though it seems like it refuses to give up, the PMIs windshield wipers seems to have started themselves for some reason and Andrée Mounier is flipping the lever back and forth like crazy, but finally they stop. The Revero still has some misfiring now and then, as does the Oldman, once again ending up with spinning tires when the power comes back. And now we hear some REALLY nasty sounds from the Minervas gearbox and Amy Storm seems to be panicking behind the wheel, finally downshifting to second gear at way too high revs, the agricultural engine seems to have survived the mishap but she really will lose some time on this. The AAAA and the Nohda has to swerwe to avoid the engine-braking Minerva, not noticing the cars approaching from behind, the Birmingham and the Buccaneer, causing them to swerwe too, but none of the cars got damaged in the process.
Probably still nervous after the incident with the gearbox, Amy Storm forgets to slow down before the chicane, which is really very much more than the handling of the Minerva is allowing for, causing it to skid off the track again. Another driver with a maybe too spirited driving style is Larry Hansen in the IP, he has been driving on the limit for very long now, but is finally ending up on the grass, barely missing to hit the Minerva. The Erin and the Sakura is taking the chicane more carefully but still has problems with some skidding. Krzesimir in the Ferrain seems to have adopted a very aggressive driving style but now he’s going over the limit, doing a 360 degree spin on the track, causing the Nohda to swerwe out on the grass.
But what now? The Caliban once again hits a car, this time the Bogliq, sending the light Bogliq spinning around in circles on the track, almost flipping over but landing on all four wheels quite undamaged. Something that’s not undamaged is the Caliban, with lots of fragile components exposed since the wood paneling shattered in the last accident, sending the Caliban to the pits once again.
One car that has been running flawlessly though is the TSR, not a single incident in four hours, and being two rookie drivers we have to say we are very happy for Johns and Lukas sake.
Four hours into the second part of the race, half time before driver swap and the results this far is as following:
- Espyo Rusp, lap # 327
- Matteo Miglia, lap # 316
- Keika Hop, lap # 309
- Caliban Thunder, lap # 309
- Nohda Bop, lap # 307
- Ferrain UtiPick, lap # 306
- Birmingham 8000, lap # 295
- TSR Kansai, lap # 295
- Revero IRO-1, lap # 295
- LSV Buccaneer, lap # 291
- Suzume Haneda, lap # 283
- Bogliq Kitten, lap # 276
- PMI Usurper, lap # 275
- AAAA V200, lap # 273
- Sakura Empress (Duchess?), lap # 267
- Erin Lomaron, lap # 266
- Oldman Series 1, lap # 266
- Minerva Bullet, lap # 260
- IP Pandora, lap # 251
