It was announced at the riders meeting that the times from FP2 would be used to determine the grid. Some were happy with the decision and others were not. Stacey felt she could have finished higher than 6th if she had known the times would be counted. To be fair to the CSBK organization, they held a separate CBR riders meeting to let them vote to keep the grid or use the Saturday morning qualifying to set the grid. The conditions were better but the track still had damp patches. By a small majority, the vote was to keep the grid from the FP2 session. That meant Leah Vignale was on pole and Karolina Pelc would line up beside her in second – the first time two girls had filled the top two spots. Congratulations to both. A compromise was reached in that the result from the first race would determine the grid for the second race.
Race: The sun came out and the track was dry for the race. Start 6th, Stacey was soon in a 6 way battle for 3rd. Eric Green opened a lead followed closely by Cedric Martineau. As the race progressed Austin Shaw-O’Leary eased away from the battle to close on the two leaders. Stacey dropped to the back of the battle in 8th place on the second lap but kept her focus and worked her way back up the field. She caught and passed Scott Lingelbach for 4th but he was not going to give up the spot easily and fought back. The last half of the race saw a close battle between Stacey, Scott and Sam McManus continue to the finish. Stacey tried hard to get 4th back, setting the fastest lap of the race with a 1:49.562 on the final lap but had to settle for 5th at the finish. The time should be a new lap record as the track has been reconfigured from last year – another first for a girl to set a lap record in the category. Congratulations to Eric on his first win having led from the start. Also to Austin and Cedric who completed the podium.
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