On top at Birmingham shootout but not the way I wanted to win!
This one's a little bittersweet. I crossed the line in 2nd, gutted that I couldn't hold on for the win, but Hayden was penalised for a track infringement, which moved me up to 1st. It's not the way I wanted to win the shootout, but we banked maximum points and extended our championship lead. That's racing.
Qualifying was tight. I went 4th in Q1 with a 52.761 and dropped to 5th in Q2, about 1.2 seconds off the lead. The track was challenging with mixed dry and hard sections, and the turns were heavily rutted by the time we got to the night show. Positions 1st through 8th were separated by just one second, so I knew the night show was always going to be a battle.
In the East Heat, I got a solid start and came out 2nd. Seth made an early mistake and I moved into the lead. From there, I put my head down, built a 4-second gap with 4 laps remaining, and took the heat race win. It felt good heading into the main.
The Main Event started well. I got a great launch and narrowly missed the holeshot but led by turn 2. Kitchen passed me after the first lap, and then I found myself battling with Levi through the opening laps, we even had contact in the whoops on lap 4. I settled in, found my rhythm, and reeled Levi back in. Just before the final corner at the 10-minute mark, I made the pass for the lead.
I had clear track for 7 minutes and was managing the race well, but with 2 minutes to go, Hayden came through and took the lead. From there, it was an intense battle for 2nd in the final two laps. I made a mistake with 3 corners to go but recovered through the whoops putting myself on the inside of Jo and held on for 2nd across the finish line. After the race, Hayden's penalty moved me up to 1st.
It's not the win I wanted, I'd rather battle it out and cross the line first but we extended our championship lead to 3 points and kept the red plate. That's what matters right now.
Next up is Detroit. We'll keep doing what we're doing and come out swinging.
Cole 🤙
