Despite the lack of outright grunt in the 3ltr Eagle I managed to coax a quali time that put me 5th on the grid, but the laptimes being posted by the front two rows did not bode well for the race.
I thought the Eagle was slow off the grid, however a couple of cars ahead of me seemed to be struggling even more than me and i picked up 2 places before T2 and was into 3rd spot!!
The original plan of playing it cool and waiting for retirements in order to pick up places ( and points) was swiftly reconfigured as the opportunity to perhaps tail King Hiro, or if I could slip past him, to hang on to Goran's slipstream became apparent. The plan worked well until KH got a little out of shape at his favourite left hander. Which is where I discovered on lap 1, that my speed through that corner was somewhat faster than his
.
My fault entirely, as I was too eager to press for a mistake so that I could get at Goran and 1st place before Goran could make good his escape!! The result was that I had to take to the grass rather than rear end KH. Something that lost me about 3 places and any chance of catching the leader unless he made a mistake.
From then on it was a case of trying to keep the Eagle revs in the very narrow band that pretends to be where the power is!!?? and suffer that horrible feeling when you allow the revs to drop on the apex of a slow corner and everything just dies whilst you wait for whole minutes ( it seems!! ) for the engine to pick up again.
Slowly reeled in one car after another until I caught Tim in a matching Eagle who was certainly hustling it along quite nicely despite having matchsticks holding his eyes open. I pressed as hard as I dared for a few laps hoping to prise an opening, but Tim was not overly keen to let me pass lol until he made a small mistake and I squeezed alongside denying him the racing line into the next corner.. and I was through.
KH was now showing as about 7 secs ahead, but I was only taking a couple of tenths a lap off of the gap and it looked like 3 rd was now the best I could hope for.
Then with 4 laps to go the gap dropped suddenly and KH was almost within reach..but not quite!! and it looked like he was just pacing himself to the flag. With 2 laps to go the gap was down to about 2 secs and I through everything that I did not need out of the cockpit to save weight ( underpants included) and threw the Eagle at every bend in the hope of putting enough pressure on to force a small mistake and create an opportunity........which Tom granted on the final lap on his favourite bend
. I really had no right or chance of 2nd spot, but as the saying goes in that great film..."never give up, never surrender!".
Grats to Goran who drove a faultless race and hard luck to KH as he should have held 2nd spot, and thanks to those who moved off line to allow cars to lap without hinderance.