Grats to Robert who could be a new recruit if Mrs Fujikawa ever returns from her mountain retreat to resurrect the WAZA RACING TEAM. Hard luck to Axel who was flying too.
This is becoming a familiar pattern Doni!!! You and me dicing for the whole race........absolutely great stuff.
I was hoping to sneak a higher grid spot because Lap 1 at the hairpin can cause huge problems and those further back in the field usually just have to wait until the carnage clears. But, lo and behold, we all sailed through in line astern like true professionals on that opening lap.
Robert and Cookie were off into the sunset, and I was tagging along behind the chasing pack with a quick Andrew in his BT11 back in 7th place. I will claim that I deliberately left a "safety margin" between my car and Andy's on lap 2 ( the truth is that I made a Horlicks of turns 1 & 2!) but that played to my advantage approaching Nouveau Monde when I saw 2 airborne cars and was able to get the brakes on early. Andy was just a little too close and had to brake hard on the left hander before the hairpin and it all went very sideways for him. There was no chance of stopping my car, so I aimed for the gaps and hoped that I did not get collected by a rebounding car.
I emerged from a total scrap fest totally unscathed and tried to make the most of my gains by giving the poor little Honda a good thrashing up the hill. The next few laps I watched prib as Doni and Iestyn both eased closer and closer with the extra power of their Ferraris and once into my slipstream I was a dead duck. So, I concentrated on allowing their pass to be as smooth as possible so that I did not miss the chance to drop back into their slipstream and get pulled along.
I was hoping that they were evenly matched for pace and that the 3 of us would stay in close contact, but Iestyn had other ideas and began to open a gap ahead of Doni. Something that I found frustrating, but I could not see a clear passing opportunity on Doni to go after Iestyn.
The big problem with the 65 Honda is that it goes well and has the spare revs in the slipstream to gain huge amounts of speed, but once you pull out to make a pass it is like someone hoists a sail and all that extra momentum vanishes!! I tried one such move on Doni and although I got alongside, he was able to pull away again......oooh! that is just soooo annoying.
Then Iestyn did the honourable thing and threw his car into the scenery just to keep things interesting, allowing Doni and myself to pass and continue our battle. I was content to sit behind Doni and let his engine do all the heavy work for a few laps, but then Iestyn was back again and passed us both. Surely he was now going to take the 3rd spot that Doni and I were arguing over? But again being the fine fellow that he is he slid wide and took a tea break.
I did a lot of thinking as I followed Doni and the laps ticked down. I reasoned that there was no chance of a last lap slipstream and overtake down the S/F line, he was just too quick there. The tow up the back straight was great but as I say it did not give me enough momentum to sweep past. Then I glanced at prib, expecting to see Iestyn coming back, and was alarmed to see that Roo in his Lotus was much closer to our little battle than I felt comfortable with. I did not want to be caught in a 3 way fight on the last lap, so I decided to use the secret rice wine injectors and the Waza braking parachute and go for a pass at the end of the straight.
I needed to time my run so that I did not have to pull out of the slipstream too soon, so I set the move up over the next lap and allowed the gap to grow just slightly before closing my eyes and going for the banzai move.
Once ahead I knew that I needed at least a 50 mtr lead before the straight, to defend against the slipstream, and was at 100% down the hill into Nouveau Monde. The next few laps were risky in terms of engine health and survival as I tried to squeeze out a safe margin. Roo was closing on Doni and I was hoping that they would hold each other up and allow me to escape.
It all worked well until I made a complete hash of my braking and Doni was back on my tail with 3 laps to go!! I was seriously worried that he would use his fezza power and get me on the S/F line, so on the last lap I did not upshift to 6th as we approached the flag but stayed in 5th and took the revs into the silly zone, just waiting for the engine to explode.........but it all held together.
An absolute blast of a race and the laps just flew past as every one was "on the edge". Thanks to Doni and Iestyn and Roo for some great racing.
