What a surprise! A good race in roller-skates!!
In fact a fantastic race. Federico was in a race of his own but the battle for 2nd to 4th was anything but settled all the way to the end.
Geoffers had some serious pace in the Alpine but took to the grass early on and all credit to Giuseppe for taking the Alfa, which seemed to have the handling of a badly behaved bouncy castle!
Up the hill at the end of the straight on lap one, Geoffers missed his braking point and had to cut across the corner to avoid clattering Giuseppe. He finished up on the grass on the outside of the corner and to be honest I thought that that would be the last we saw of him. Not so. [EDIT: Actually he stayed on the tarmac and I nearly took his nose off as we went into the right hander. It was coming out of the last corner that he dropped it and lost a few places.]
I crept closer and closer to Giuseppe and then the Alfa got the better of him and I was through to second spot. This situation looked good as I had a couple of seconds on Giuseppe and on a good lap could even pull away a tad. What was more, Geoffers had recovered from his first lap "off" and looked set to give Giuseppe some grief.
Just when I thought that second place was mine, the Alpine decided that it didn't have as much grip on the back end as I thought and I found myself bouncing across the grass just after turn three. Needless to say, Giuseppe and Geoffers swept past.
Back down to fourth but the three of us were still locked together with the bouncy castle in front!
Then Geoffers made a mistake at turn three and I was back to chasing Giuseppe. I think that he made a mistake at the last corner (or maybe that was the first time I got past
) which put me back to second again but it wasn't long before I made another mistake and let Giuseppe back through.
It all got a bit up close and personal at one time but nothing that needed any additional action after the event. I think that we all just backed out and didn't press home the attack.
So in the closing stages I was on Giuseppe's bumper trying to find a way past and after a couple of failed attempts to pass me Geoffers seemed to drop back.
On the last lap I was trying to exit the last hairpin tighter and faster than Giuseppe when the back end let go again and I was off to the grass!
(Think I had inside wheels on the curb.
)
Geoffers swept past as I was ploughing through the infield and I thought that that was it.
But Geoffers was going very slowly down the finishing straight and I reached the line in third spot?
Not sure what Geoffers was up to because I certainly didn't feel that he owed me anything. I must have a look at the replay. (Just watched the replay and can only think that Geoffers got a phone call or was laughing so much at my antics that he forgot what he was doing!
)
Congratulations to Federico and thanks to Giuseppe and Geoffers for a great race.
WD to Matt for a well matched track and cars. Well, apart from the Mini and why anyone in their right mind would choose one of those is a complete mystery!
