Desert Storm

The heat was on for round two of the GMWC series this week and the action on the track was as hot as the local climate. Whilst many teams and drivers were glad to move on from the demanding Shanghai track which thoroughly tested driver skill, the Bahrain Sakhir circuit posed a whole new challenge to complete the opening cup of the season.

Whilst remaining a challenge to the drivers, Sakhir presented a nightmare for the teams and setup engineers with many struggling to find a fast but consistent setup. The early pace in testing saw Shanghai feature winner and points leader AJ Weber topping the times.

Come raceday though, the headline grabber was the appearance of the much feared pace of the Antares car which saw them enjoy significant advantage in the many straights with Celso Jorge and Mike Redman showing strong.

Sprint Races

Complete chaos ensued at the start of the first race with the tight turn one catching lots of drivers out, the safety car also added to the melee with more drivers getting caught up in incidents with damaged cars. More than half the grid pitted for repairs leaving pole sitter Matt Lewis at the head of the field and the eventual win. Mike Redmond scored a great result for Antares starting and finishing second with Brandon Longworth escaping the chaos to rise to the final podium place.  Anthony Cochrane was the big winner of the opening chaos rising 17 places to take 4th.

By the second race a theme was emerging, M-sport had a fast qualifying car but Antares had faster sprint race pace. Another pole for Matt Lewis came to nothing though after contact from Chris Jones into the first corner sent them both to the back of the pack. AJ Weber chased hard but Antares notched the first win of the year with Celso taking the flag. Mike Redmond with another solid performance in 4rd and Zach Litchfiled with a strong result came home in the points in 5th

The final sprint saw a Matt Lewis, Celso Jorge, AJ Weber result.

The main event

So the scene was set and the cards were on the table, or so it seemed. Between races the Antares team had been thinking hard and Celso Jorge snatched pole with a stunning lap in the dying seconds having narrowly avoided a spinning Matt Lewis on the back straight. The M-Sport team owner having wasted that final lap could not respond. Anthony Cochrane also showed his hand with 3rd followed Mike Redmond and AJ Weber.

The feature race start whilst less incident strewn was no less dramatic.  Matt Lewis had a poor lap dropping to 6th with Mike Redmond endured a torrid start dropping to 17th.  By lap 3 Matt had clawed two places back but the leading pack of Celso, Anthony and AJ had a gap going. Celso and Anthony exchanged places briefly on lap 4 and they would continue to battle throughout the race.

AJ Weber showed good pace struggling with a difficult car but a 3 stop strategy ultimately dropped him away as the race progressed. In the midfield and rear of the grid action was frenzied and changed by the lap. The large grids now enjoyed by the league providing some entertaining racing.

Up front Anthony had the upper hand after the pit stops and led the most laps but a longer middle stint did not work out for him and going into the last stint the race was far from won. Matt Lewis has made a steady recovery through the race to sit in 3rd but unable to close a 5 second gap to the Celso / Anthony battle. However the race was about to be decided in a true case of it isn't over till the fat lady sings. 

Entering lap 19 Celso has once again diced with Anthony but this time had the lead onto the final two straights where his cars power had the upper hand. Ahead in the final turn however a sister Antares car was recovering from an off and Celso, possibly distracted ran wide. As Celso rejoined Anthony found himself faced with a back marker and two recovering Antares cars, the combining traffic and backing off had closed the top three in one corner. As Celso and Anthony regained there speed from the unexpected incident in a drag race down the finish straight, Matt Lewis was foot to the floor behind enjoying a healthy slipstream from team mate Michael Gore and then latching onto the back of Anthony for a further tow effect to slingshot into first place. All 3 cars closed in on turn one with hardly a gap and contact between all 3 seemed inevitable but it was Anthony chasing Matt up the hill out of the turn. An attempt was made into the hairpin with the RAC car diving up the inside of the M-sport car but over cooking it. 

A spin from Anthony later that lap left Matt with a comfortable margin that he would maintain for the victory. Celso and Anthony had unfinished business however continuing to trade places until a blocking move too many saw Celso unable to avoid the back of Anthonys car, tapping him into a spin. Celso continued to take second with a return to the podium for the new RAC rookie. AJ driving well to wring performance out of his car took 4th.

So the first two races down and some of the most exciting races the league has seen, the new Formula certainly seems to be doing the goods thanks to its developers.  The GP league now takes a break whilst the drivers head for the Enduro series but the GP cars return at Estoril soon where the battle will be as strong as ever.