This was a truly entertaining race
Settled for the 914 in offline testing, as it was the quickest for me (but they were all close).
Clive just pipped my time late in qual, relegating me to 4th. Most courteously, he then stuffed the start completely
As both Jose and Ati also seemed a bit wobbly, the miracle happened, and I wound up in front. Alas, lasted only to T1.. From hero to zero in one easy click; as I downshifted, I lost the rear and spun off..
Rejoined in 12th, but quickly made up some places, when cars in front fell off.
Got past Bob in more regular fashion, by some slipstreaming, putting me in 6th behind Steve. When he fell off in the righthand hairpin, I was 5th - for about 2 secs! In a bout of misplaced sympathy, I went off in much the same fashion, handing it to Clive, whom I had in tow. Did the exact same error next lap, letting Postal past (apparently I suffered a mild case of the same brainmelt as Clive..) Managed to catch and pass Postal again at the start of the following lap, putting me back in 6th. Later same lap, I passed Dana after she had a moment. Next up was Roger, and I was now in 4th, chasing Clive. Passed him when he fell off as he mentioned, and then had him as my shadow for the next many laps. Gap seesawed a little, depending on how well he got through the righthanders..
With about 1/3 of the race left, it seemed Clive suddenly got a second wind, as the gap started dropping. With a podium almost within my grasp, I of course started getting nervous and making mistakes. As the finish was nearing, I had nasty deja-vu's of Clive slipstreaming and beating me on the very finish line in the 50's Sprints. Fortunately I didn't have to see a repeat of that yesterday
Only after the finish did I realise that it was in fact Bill closing on me and not Clive - they were in very similar looking cars, and I couldn't tell the difference in my mirror. Quite a stellar drive Bill - I was lucky the race ended when it did!
Grats to Jose and Ati - Jose, I tried your Datsun setup from the last race. Very nice and will definitely go back to it next time I use that car, so thanks for sharing it!
Thanks to Tony for arranging - and very nice to see such a large grid
Cheers,
Erling