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Round 7 of Season 3 of the WTCS begins again after a break at the famous and flowing asphalt of Suzuka. A rollercoaster of a circuit with plenty of corner variety and long straights make it a difficult track to setup for. Tom had to miss this event so it was down to Ryan and Chris to score well to keep the teams championship alive.
For qualifying Ryan was banned due to penalties last time around leaving just Chris to see how high he could go. After some good early laps Chris managed 27th overall, 11th in class, it is fair to say that Ryan wasn't the only one with an excluded from qualifying penalty.
Race one started in the typical hustle and bustle of 2 and 3 wide into turn 1. No Senna sends though. Chris held on very well to earn a 26th, 11th in class. Ryan started well and made progress to near Chris who avoided a hefty crash from 130R onwards, but a weird re-join from Patrick Falconer sent Ryan into the grass on the exit of turn 1 into turn 3 giving him a black flag, he luckily kept a hold of 26th and a 13th in class.
Buoyed by a decent result in race 1, race 2 began in 43c heat, Chris avoided the lap 1 incidents extremely well and showed good pace picking up places from people suffering from the heat and mishaps to finish in a good 8th place in class, 21st overall. Ryan suffered a similar fate to that of race 1, but this time being sandwiched between Andreas Gillmann re-joining and Scott Malcom trying to overtake on the inside. This resulted in Ryan spinning and dumped at the rear of the field. With the pace being low at the start Ryan managed to pick up places and fight hard to earn a 13th in class, 26th overall.
Race 3 proved lucky for Chris, an extremely favourable front row grid start in 2nd was on the cards to net some excellent results. That was where the luck ended unfortunately. A poor getaway and a mistake into the hairpin saw Chris meet up with Ryan further back in the pack. A switch in position was orchestrated and Ryan ploughed on. A check up into the Degna's saw Ryan avoid a subsequent half spin from Pete Newman to avoid the carnage from behind, that included an unsighted Chris who ended up getting hit from behind; spat onto the grass and ended up appearing suddenly in front of another car at the exit of Degna 2. That pretty much ended Chris race for a 30th place finish, 17th in class. Ryan managed to haul himself into some good points with a 5th in class finish and 12 overall.
Round 8 will be held at Interlagos. Can the duo of Tom and Chris samba their way into some results? Find out next Thursday, 7:30pm on the Racespot TV broadcasts.
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