KNIGHTO SHOCKS AS DORSY FINDS PACE
- Trent Streams
- Dec 5, 2015
- 3 min read
It's early days in the Whishy Racing Series championship but Race 4 at Sandhill Circuit in Worthsley will be remembered as one of the weirder ones, in the sense that the cream of the cake scavenged around the end of the top 10, and in some cases, at the very back of the field. At the end, Gilly found herself the beneficiary, managing 11th and actually a points gain in her championship lead. The race was all about Knighto, though, who recorded his first-ever Whishy Racing Series, top 5, his first ever podium, and his first ever win!
Bubblegum began the race on pole, with Twister, who crashed out late in the race earlier race, alongside. Bubblegum's joy turned to anguish in the blink of an eye however. The starting lights went out, but only 29 cars in the field moved. Bubblegum sat there stranded, and was lucky not to be hit by several cars - Fluffy narrowly missed him coming through from 16th. Bubblegum eventually got off the line, blaming the problem on the clutch, but from the get-go started 10 seconds behind the field.
Twister didn't last long in the lead either, locking the brakes at turn 3 and hitting the wall. She was able to limp back to pit lane, but the damage had been done - a bad day made worse for one of the front-runners. Dorsy took the lead and remained in the lead until lap 17, when she pitted along with the rest of the field. She lost a second or two to Bubbles (in 2nd), but a mistake soon later on track by Bubbles allowed her a bit of breathing space. Both Sketcher and Knighto, who had posted consistently fast laps throughout the race after starting 7th, took advantage and Bubbles fell to 4th.
The top 3 remained fairly even, but after pressuring Sketcher for lap after lap, Knighto finally spotted the opening he had been looking for, and worked his way past Sketcher into 2nd at turn 4 on lap 31. Dorsy raced 1.1 seconds ahead, and seemed to be cruising to victory before an uncharacteristic mistake on lap 34 gave Knighto a sniff. Right on Dorsy's tail, Knighto made his presence felt, sniffing his nose into any gap he could find. On the very last lap of the race (36), Knighto made his move, getting a fast exit out of turn 4, and racing down Dorsy's inside down the back straightaway. Come turn 5, Knighto had his nose in front, and exited the corner in front.
Shocked fans on the front straight didn't know whether they felt like cheering or not, but Knighto got a warm reception from the pavilion as he rounded the final corner and crossed the finish line for his first ever Whishy Racing Series victory! Dorsy finished 8 tenths of a second behind, and Sketcher rounded out the podium in 3rd.
Wishy, on the other hand, had a pretty miserable last lap. In 13th place, his back end kicked out as his back right tyre blew running through the turns 2 and 3 chicane. He went straight through at 200kph and hit the turn 4 wall hard. Medical crews rushed to the scene of the crash, where they assisted Wishy, winded through, from his car and back to pit lane. Wishy reported a painful right fin, but that's all we know so far.
For the full race results, click here.
For the full championship points table, click here.
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