Suzuka 1973 Porsche RSR Race Reports

[DJCruicky]

Post your Suzuka Circuit race reports here .

[Edvvc]

Race 1 was going really well until Rik in his usual style found more speed towards the end and chased me down. I felt the pressure and went wide in Spoon, lost the lead and was unable to get it back.

Race 2 was really good. The grid wasn't set so I was still on pole. Rik was on my tail right from the start and I spent most of the race defending the lead. On lap 9 I had a poor exit from Spoon and Rik got alongside on the outside of 130R but ran wide allowing me to take the position back. When we got to Casio chicane I was unable to take the normal line due to a backmarker but Rik fared better and got alongside on the straight. He was on the inside into First corner and I had no answer. From then he opened up the gap and I couldn't keep up. It was a superb battle and I had a lot of fun.

[Hedlund]

QUALI was a very frustrating session for me, I couldn't get all the sectors right in any of my laps. The lap that put me in 2nd was actually the only one that was good, EXCEPT from a mistake in Spoon corner. All my other laps would had put me in the midfield probably. I had to abandon a lot of laps because I ran wide. Not happy with my driving here, but very pleased with P2.

RACE 1 I got a good start and slotted in between Ed and DJC. I made a mistake in turn 9 (this was the part of the track that ruined most of my quali laps lol), so Ed got a nice lead and instead I had DJC all over me. Made some mistakes the 2 first laps, including a gear shift fail, but slowly recovered. From here, Ed's race report pretty much sums it up. I slowly catched him and was able to get past when he made a mistake. Kept it together in the final lap to take the win.

RACE 2 Started from 2nd again and made no mistakes in the beginning, but in turn 9 I nearly lost it a few laps later. But I slowly catched Ed again to put him under pressure as much as I could. From here, my report would be identical to Ed's. I finally got a run on him when we lapped a backmarker and the remaining laps I managed to pull a little gap that I kept by not making any more mistakes!

Thanks for the good racing in these last two rounds! I wish I could race more often, I had fun. Perhaps I'll see you in some races next season too