This is one of the most intense races I've ever had! (or have I already used that line for other races before, but just don't remember?)
I knew I had no chance whatsoever in the BT7 against the army of BRMs and BT11s (how come we have so many of those??), but to qualify in 7th despite a tow from Evil (great team work in Qualifying) was rather disheartening. I had low expectations for the race and just wanted to finish behind that pack of fast cars, and maybe pick up a place or two if any would retire.
After an advice from Tim for using 6th gear only for slipstreaming and which worked quite well after I put it to the test in Qualifying when we did the team tow run with Evil, it led to having a slightly longer 1st gear than I would've liked, but it was just enough to make a decent start as I shifted up from neutral.
The BRM in front (which I assume was Tom, judging from his report) had a bad start and I passed it in the first few meters, then got passed myself by someone else and kept the outside line in CG. I quickly realized the difference in speed between my BT7 and the BRM/BT11 pack in front, and that the only chance to keep up with them was to never lose the slipstream.
Easier said than done though, especially with the drivers around me driving a bit overly-defensive and thus forcing me to go slower through corners - something which I couldn't afford to do! I had a few outbursts of actually saying things to them and waving my fist, as well as doing the latter in game.
It's easy to drive defensively when you have the power to re-catch those in front, but it's a source of desperation when your only chance to make up time in corners is being compromised by another driver like that. Anyway, because those in front seemed to be too involved with their own battle, they were not going at optimal speed and I was soon up to 5th and catching them up.
The slipstream from the frontrunners (I don't really know who was who) was alowing me to break away from those behind me, even though they stayed within reach, ready to take advantage of any little mistake. The slipstream-only 6th gear worked great and allowed me to go slightly faster than a BRM running without a tow at the end of the longest straights, which was enough to make passes, especially when combined with slower corner exits by the BRM drivers.
Even so, as soon as I would pass someone, they were immediately back to regain their position, so I needed some tactical approach to make it stick. The way it worked best was passing someone under braking into Lesmo 1, after getting a better exit speed out of CG (which I suppose was down to better setup for that particular turn), and then pulling away through the two Lemos and using the slipstream of the next car in front to break away or at least defend against any attacks. Then I could fortify my defense by a faster Parabolica and switch to using the same tactic on the next car.
Obviously there was a shortcomming of that in the sense that I'll have nobody to pull me forward once I pass the leader, but there was no time to think about that at the time. It took many laps to even reach the leader, whoever it was at the time, and then make a proper pass, but by the time it happened, some of those running in the pack had dropped back - Clutch, Fulvio, Al, Nathan and Bob. I was eventually left to fight only against Tom's BRM, and it was one of the faster BRMs, especially compared to Bob's, whose strange driving habits were really irritating - slowing down on the exit of corners, driving extremely defensively costing us both time, and then running oddly slow down the straight, despite having a BRM.
Anyway, once I remained the only challenge to Tom, I wanted to make sure we break away from the rest, so I didn't attack like mad everywhere I could, but just hung on with him and passed whenever it came naturally, without compromising our corner speeds too much. It worked positively and with our mutual slipstream and exchange of positions, we soon doubled the gap back to Al and Nathan from 5 to 10 seconds.
I needed to test how I was going to finish in front of Tom at the line, so I tried a couple of attacks at different places and observed how quickly he could repass me back, and what were his weakest places at the track. It appeared that as long as I could get a faster exit off Lesmo 2 and use the tow on the run to Parabolica, I could pass Tom and then it all depended on accelerating earlier than Tom. In 2 out of 3 attempts, it worked fine, so I was optimistic, but there were still 5 laps to go.
In those 5 laps I didn't make any more attacks and just put pressure on Tom, hoping he would brake too late and go off, or something. That didn't happen, so the tension was building up all the time until the final lap. I was very nervous at this point and almost lost it in Lesmo 2, but managed to accelerate slightly better and use the tow provided by Tom's BRM.
Tom decided to take an inside line on the entry to Para instead of the outside line, which he took in all of my previous test attacks, so I had to improvise and brake late, and then accelerate earlier through the outside of the corner.
It worked quite well to be honest, but Tom had a very good exit as well and was a bit too close compared to the previous times when I managed to cross the s/f line in the lead.
As it turned out, he just managed to pass me at the end, by 5 hundreds of a second.
Grats to Tom, of course, great racing, very clean! I just wish the others would not have raced so aggressively and defensively so early on, because you really don't gain anything like that on such a powertrack where slipstream is of big importance. Of course, it helped to me keep up and catch up with them, which I wouldn't otherwise have a chance of doing, but it's counter-productive and it also slowed me down once I become a part of the fight. It was even crucial for me because I couldn't afford to lose time in corners and lose the tow from those ahead.
I thought I had a chance to win the title after his retirement and had I won the race, but apparently I was wrong, so grats to Tim for the Championship! Well deserved!
-=Hristo=-