There is a new category of features for the SpeedHunters Project, Sequence. Well it did not take long to find one story that would fit while out and about last weekend.

The 2010 GT1 World Championship features a Qualifying Race to determine who will lead the pack in the Main Race. There are also points on offer and of course all racing drivers grow horns when they get suited and booted and jump in behind the wheel.

The logic runs, if it can be called logic, that the race is won or lost on the first corner, especially in such a fiercely contested Championship such as the 2010 GT1 World Championship.

From my vantage point outside the cockpit I am only convinced by 50% of that theory. The race can certainly be lost on Turn One, I'll reserve judgement on the winning bit.

In the middle of the front row of racers is pole position man, Tomas Enge, in the Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DBR9, now trying to convert his practice success into a lead. Making life difficult is Alex Margaritis with the Phoenix Racing Corvette C6.R, the yellow machine lunging down the inside line to Turn One. The second row is where the action is. A conservative line after a blistering start for the Lamborghini Murcialago 670 R-SV driven by Christopher Haase but already the Sumo Power Nissan GT-R is in trouble as Peter Dumbreck gets out of shape and in the cockpit he realises that he has left his braking a tad late. Could he recover the car………….Hero or Zero?

The tyre smoke continues the Aston brakes but the Nissan is carrying too much speed.

The tail is lost and the nightmare begins, spinning in front of the pack will be embarrassing at best, bloody dangerous and potentially painful at worst.

After getting a tap from Dumbreck, Enge's Aston also gets out of shape, with Haase looking to join in the fun, meanwhile Margaritis is clear.

Armfuls of lock are no help to Dumbreck, the laws of physics have taken over. Like a biker going over the high-side nothing can keep the GT-R in a straight line. The Lamborghini gives the Aston another whack, this is going to be messy.

Will Nissan and Aston Martin collide again?

Somehow Enge regains control, while the Nissan causes mayhem behind it.

The final result as the pack streams away and the GT-R limps off to retire. Driver error? Maybe on the face of it, but when the video is examined the story changes a bit. Starting from the 4th row, Dumbreck makes an excellent start to barrel past the #25 Lamborghini. Frank Kechele aboard the Italian SuperCar then pulls a Schumacher-esque move, squeezing the Nissan off the track on to the pit lane exit and even over some of the green stuff. That should have got a penalty, no question. From then on it was inevitable that the Nissan would struggle to retain control, Peter almost managed it but as they say, "Close but no cigar".

So one rash move puts the car out of the race and out of contention for the weekend. 

“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.” Hemingway got that right, ask Peter Dumbreck.

John Brooks