10th May Spring Pursuit 9

A pleasant morning with a 10 mph SW wind saw 22 starters set off at their allocated times, well apart from Karen who jumped the gun !
At the end of the first lap William came through in his usual 1st place in his Topper, followed by Gordon (Mirror), Rhys (Topper), John C (Topaz) and Peter S (Byte). The first of the Lasers was Hugh in 7th place with a Radial rig, then Richard S and Karen in full rig Lasers.
Second lap and William was still out in front, but John C had moved up to 2nd with Gordon 3rd and Rhys 4th. Karen had moved up four places to 5th with Richard S 6th.  Ian C (Supernova) had come though from 19th to 7th and Dave L had gained two places to 8th. Another rapid mover was Paul R (Aero) who had moved up from 17th to 9th. Gordon decided two laps was enough for him and retired.
At the end of the third lap the leader was John C, but Karen was gaining and was now in 2nd with Richard S in 3rd place and Ian up to 4th and Paul up to 5th. Jon C (Laser) had gained three places up to 7th and Curtis had gained a couple of places up to 9th.
At the end of lap four, Ian was leading with Karen 2nd and Paul was up to 3rd.  Richard S was 4th and Jon C had moved up to 5th with Newton & Ellen (Laser 2000) gaining five places up to 6th. Dave L and Curtis both gained a place to move up to 7th and 8th and Hugh also moved up one place to 9th. John W (Laser) and Dave P (laser) both moved up two places to 10th and 11th. Further back Steve P (Laser) and James P (Laser) also gained two places and Hadey after going backwards in the first few laps had found a new lease of life and was making ground again and Mike C (Solo) gained two places just before the gun.
At the gun Paul had snatched victory from Ian and Karen had retired, at last being informed of her early start, allowing Jon up to 3rd, with Richard S 4th, Dave L 5th  and Newton & Ellen just pipping Curtis for 6th place.