Sorry for the late filing of this, chaps. Never enough time...
Anytime that we come back to Mosport is always a personal pleasure. When GPL first came out...last century..., it was the first circuit that I tried. Hopped aboard the big BRM and took it for a tour. Not counting the trackside objects which are a little off here and there, the rendering was superb! The plan view layout and the elevations are beautifully modeled. To drive the virtual version is to know it in reality. I was born & raised just minutes down the road in the small berg of Bowmanville and attended the track’s first major event in its opening season of 1961, the Player’s 200. SSM was the hands-down winner in a Lotus 19. I also attended the Canadian Grand Prix in the fall of that same year but it was for sports racing cars in those early days. Moss and Olivier Gendebien dueled for the lead before falling to mechanical woes letting Peter Ryan move up to score a popular win. In 1962, I attended all the major events plus virtually every club race and that’s when my racing bug bit. I just had to do this.
My rookie year was 1974 in a six-year old Kelly FV and I did nine races that year at Mosport. Two more in ‘75 before parking the car and putting it up for sale to finance my up-gunning to Formula Ford. Over the next years, up to 1983, I suppose that I did some dozen or so events in a Hawke and a Crossle. Even did a one-off in a street-stock Honda Civic. Ah, but that was then. This is now...
Grats to Hristo on scoring a fine win in the winged Chaparral. I consider that fact that I qualified a close P2 to him and ran with him in the early frames as more he not being terribly well prepared for this than any blistering pace that I demonstrated. Normally, he’s streets faster.
Some dramas on the pace lap. I have to confess at having a bit of a chuckle as Hristo motored off onto the grass verge in T1. I could see that it wasn’t a serious off so throttled back and let him resume on the point. There was a little bumpsy-daisy down in the hairpin but the big loss was for Sam in the Mk4 Ford who went off at the top of the back straight and spun. This was such a pity as he’d qualified this big brute superbly in P7. Whatever went wrong there, Sam?
Our first flying lap had Hristo rocket away nicely coming off White’s with me close in tow. Al, who’d qualified very well in the Ferrari and for the longest time, held pole position, was a close P3 to my Chaparral.
That first flying lap I found to be a bit of a surprise as I was nicely in contact with Hristo and seemed to be pulling away rapidly from Al. He had Cookie in close company in the Chaparral 2D with Juha in a 2F keeping him company.
I found that while I was quickest in the 2F in pre-race trials, I also found it to be a bit of challenge to keep it on the road so my battle plan was to just lay down reasonable laps and not try anything fancy.
By Lap4, Hristo and I had definitely broken clear of Al. And sadly for Al, he looped the Ferrari at T2 to drop to P5 behind Juha(now P3)and Cookie. Chaparral 2F’s were now running 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
Lap7 was key. I was running about 1-3/4 seconds adrift of Hristo and not about to take any chance to close in when we came upon Paul and Nigel down in the hairpin. As luck would have, Hristo would be able to pass them both cleanly up the Andretti Straight but I had to follow line astern of Paul til we got to the finishing straight. Nigel had been so co-operative in letting us by that he flat drove straight off the road to give us room! Yikes! Crossing the S/F line to finish the lap, the gap to Hristo had now ballooned to three seconds. Also on this round, Juha fell afoul of the ever-tricky T2 and spun as had Al earlier. He handed back P3 and P4 to Al and Cookie before resuming. Even worse, coming into White’s to finish the lap, poor Juha spun the Chaparral wildly in the outfield verge to lose a ton of time and a position to Phil who was going great guns in the Mirage.
Lap9 and Al drops into the pits to serve his handicap stop and drops to P9 almost a lap down to Hristo. I note that both Hristo and I have dipped into the 24-second bracket and while some five seconds down to him, he’s still in sight.
Comes Lap14 and I’m off in T2, Clayton Corner. A simple mistake rather than a pure blunder. I let the Chaparral drift a bit too wide to the right over the crest and tip-toed along the edge of the roadway. For a while there, I actually thought I was going to save it but no, the 2F was off onto the infield grass verge. The Chaparral cruised along at ever-reducing speed and I was maintaining a reasonable degree of control. The only question now was would I be able to bring it to heel in time before I hit the infield fence. If so, I’d be able to bring it back and the time loss wouldn’t be that major. Nope. Kissed the fence and spun the car. Bugger! While I still maintained P2, I dropped a solid nine seconds thanks to the gaffe with a net deficit to Hristo of about 16 seconds.
At the end of Lap16, I ducked into the pits to serve the one stop intended. I fell off the road in T9 on the approach to the pits and added a little more time to my in & out than I intended. Putz!
After serving 41 seconds in my stall, I gassed it out to find that I was relegated to P4 just behind Tim’s honking Mk4. That became P3 the very next lap as Cookie dropped in for his timed stop. Over the next couple of laps, I deked this way and that trying to get by Tim but he was driving the big Ford with great skill and abandon. It’s no cinch to pass at Mosport and Tim was putting up a spirited defense. Finally, on Lap20, I got a good exit on the low side of T1 and steamed up on Tim’s right as we approached T2. This was done in such a rapid manner that I don’t think Tim had even a chance to contemplate moving over to the right to take up the proper approach line to T2. Tim was obliged to stay to the left as we roared up the hill. (This is not a pleasant prospect. I’ve had real-life competitors throw blocks on me in this manner by intentionally staying to the left side of the roadway on the approach to T2 and I giggled when they sailed straight on over the crest to end up somewhere near Bowmanville.)
A risky move to some degree on my part but I’ve pulled it off before and I trusted two things: the grip afforded the Chaparral 2F and Tim’s skill. Just made it! P2 in my grasp with little likelihood that anyone would be able to threaten me at this point, I eased my pace and just concentrated on bringing the car home without further error. Juha was not far behind myself and Tim but had yet to serve his handicap stop. The balance of the race wound down as I concentrated on being careful rather than daring and was most satisfied with P2.
Tim ended up a brilliant P3 in the Ford Mk4 after a stirring drive. Juha triumphed over his misadventures to place P4 and Al netted P5. The Evil One placed a good P6 in the first of the GT40's after a fine drive. Early challenger, Cookie, faded to P7 after some grief not all of his own doing by any means. Ahem...ahem...
As Paul notes above in his post, his contribution in the Porsche 910 has proved invaluable in the points standings and has vaulted Fujikawa to the top of the championship standings. I’ve never been so high. I’m getting a nose bleed!
When all is said and done, though, it's the participation that counts and not the results.