Barry Baker on a roll

He had a torrid time in qualifying eventually claiming a very lowly 103rd but Barry Baker is on a roll here in Lisbon bumping up two finals so far today. Starting on pole for the 1/256 Final A, the Team Magic driver took third in the race to secure the final spot on the grid for the 1/128 Final A which he went on to win from Takehiro Terauchi who kept the American on his toes. In both finals, the first of which was won by Rafael Angulo, the US Pro racer recorded the fastest laps.

Baker says he is being very careful and as he discovered in the 1/128 final you need to be as he got collected while trying to pass Winik Henrique but luckily no damage was done and he could continue but Henrique got a stop go penalty for the incident. Bakers current rise through the finals is an real American team effort, Josh Cyrul is acting as his pitman and Paul Lemeiux is on tyre truing duties athough Lemieux said, while handing over a set of fresh tyres, that just because he was helping out didn’t mean he wanted Barry to keeping bumping up!

In the 1/128 Final B Brandt Mickael took the win having bumped up from the 1/256 Final B which was won by Pedro Silva who also bumps up to the 1/64 Finals. One big casualty so far is that of World 1:8 Semi Finalist and local ace Bruno Coelho who will take no further part after finishing 8th in 1/128 Final B.

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