The fifth round of the Racing Club International Diamond Drive Club took place at a very warm Misano World Circuit for a 60 minute sprint to the finish. Many experienced drivers came into their own this round, with Pro and Silver classes mixing for the first time making for interesting battles all across the track.
Aenore Rose took the pole position honors with a 1:33.387, with Ruby Acosta qualifying eighth overall with a 1:34.782 and Kaine Luna right behind in ninth clocking in a 1:34.802. With the race started the mix of Silver and Pro class drivers proved to be a chaotic affair, with many battles for positions going on throughout the first part of the race. Kaine stuck right behind Silver class driver Sarah Johnson as she was able to hold off the Brazilian driver for the first part of the race.
Ruby was hit with a track limits penalty, and would end up speeding into the pits, having to serve a drive through and a stop-and-go while still requiring a mandatory stop. Kaine Luna was hit by a track limits penalty as well, however she kept her entry clean and was able to avoid further penalties to take her mandatory stop. With Nicole Fox in sight, she did her best to manage the gap while dealing with damage, finding herself on the Pro podium in third due to being in range of the time penalty Nicole had suffered earlier; a monumental recovery for Kaine!
While Aenore was untouched throughout the course of the race, she had to manage traffic and track cut warnings in the meanwhile. Misano proved to be a very tricky circuit for managing track cut warnings, with the racing line taking advantage of the extra run off while keeping a knife’s edge balance to not trigger a warning. In the end she crossed the line for her fifth consecutive win, teetering upon a potential drivethrough penalty with the third warning making her drive carefully as possible while still having to keep up the pace.
It turned out to be a tough race, however with the final round being a 90 minute affair anything can happen to shake up the standings. We hope to see our fans and supporters there and we will come back even stronger!
(text by Ruby Acosta, pictures by Aenore Rose)