No sooner had Conway lost position to one Carlin driver than another one was through, as the smooth driving American Charlie Kimball took position too, dispelling any myths that Yanks can’t drive in the wet. Underlying the point, Kimball went on to lower the race’s fastest lap marker on the sixth lap, only to have an off at Tower, dropping him back to eighth when he next crossed the start/finish line.
Whilst Kimball had been having his rather large moment at Tower, elsewhere on track Ryan Lewis and Mike Conway were dicing for position, and contact resulted. Lewis took the place, whilst Conway now had the added challenge of a bent track rod to add to his increasing woes.
The top ten battle was shaping up quite nicely indeed as the race neared half distance, with Parente comfortable up ahead, from Christian Bakkerud now having Lewis, Conway, a strong running James Walker, Tim Bridgman, speedy Dan Clarke and recovering Charlie Kimball at the end of the seventh lap.
Race leader Alvaro was soon with back-marker traffic and his lead was slashed to under a second from team-mate Bakkerud, as everyone else closed in for more dicing. Dan Clarke gave Tim Bridgman plenty to think about, Mike Conway gave Ryan Lewis plenty to think about, and Bridgman, Clarke and Kimball all gave each other all gave each other plenty to think about.
Soon young Charlie Kimball had rather more to think about, as his earlier off at Tower hadn’t given him enough warning about the car claiming corner, as Kimball had a massive off, undoing all his good work in spectacular fashion. Kimball only suffered injury to his pride, and no doubt bank balance, from the incident, which brought the safety car back out on track.
