What a rollercoaster of emotions i went through last night on home turf
Turned up with not enough practise. Had managed to sneak in 8 laps in my lunchbreak
but still wasnt happy with my gearing, but studied the ratios for 3rd and 4th which seemed the most useful here and nailed it
I had beaten myself up all week thinking i was yet again 6/10ths off the pace even on a track i know so well, but i hadnt done any light fuel runs or tried softs. Queue Qualifying and i was straight on the money pace wise and smashed all my previous times, which was very satisfying. I was 3rd fastest for nearly the whole session until Matteo demoted me to 4th in the dying seconds.
Race start was good but Jos was even quicker and took my 4th before Paddock bend. I slotted in behind and battled upto Druids and then pressured him for quite a few laps sat right on his bumper. He then got past Fabri and i then sat glued to his bumper for many laps with Maxime nipping at my tail in his Sierra. We had a great 3 way battle but Max passed me cleanly into Clearways and was on his way with Jos. I continued fighting chasing Fabri and think i was actually losing time behind him as the Alfa seemed really sluggish in some corners and i kept losing my cornering speeds getting out of the throttle. I do think if i could have got past i would have pulled up to the front few but the Alfa was wide as a brick.
But it was amazing to be up front again in this series and within sight of the front 4 all having their own battles even so late in the race. Tims Merc started looking like a drunk driver up ahead with the car seemingly having lurid slides about the place and within a lap Fabri and i had caught him at Druids. This is where my beautiful race started to unravel...and then some
Fabri took the inside line with Tim on the outside, i tried to follow Fabri through thinking that Tims tyres were totally shot and he was staying wide but he then naturally turned in and the space that was there disapeared. My own (yellow) tyres were too worn to stop in time and i gave Tim a healthy thump in the side quarter. I instantly got out the throttle and let him regain the track ahead of me, sorry for that, but this also allowed Kai to close the 2 secs deficit to me with only 2 laps remaining.
Following Tims wayward car around the rest of the lap with Kais buzzing beemer behind me i braked a tad too late for my worn boots at Clearways, had a huge wobble which i was just getting hold of, when Kai seemed to plow right through me and sent me spinning off into the pit entrance. I was understandably fuming at that point
all my hard work undone
To add total insult to injury, i ran out of fuel within a few hundred metres of the finish line and no less than 4 cars past me before i could roll over the line
Evidently the fuel used trying to regain the track had robbed me of finishing. Ekins even crossed the line about 1m in front of me as i crawled over the line.
5th to 12th in one lap, gutted to say the least after driving my socks off
As if to rub salt in the wounds, i now lined up on the grid for race 2 behind Syd 'none shall pass' Drake
and just knew i was in for a torrid time on a track thats hard to pass without a good car advantage. And so it proved. I spent the entire race glued to his derrier trying left and right every lap to get past, losing 0.5 to 1 sec per lap to no avail.
How i didnt thump him was un-real, i had to seriously hit the anchors in many corners to avoid contact. The Alfa seemed so ungainly in some corners almost coming to a halt and it was utterly frustrating. I kept willing him to make a mistake to give me a sniff but fair credit, he kept it on the tarmac despite intense pressure. I think if he'd let me past (not that you would) we could have closed on the cars fighting ahead rather than hold each other up all race but great defensive driving...again
Finally, on the very last lap, like a pitbull that wouldnt give up, i got him at Paddock bend and went side by side up to Druids and he finally conceded
7th? was mine. All that effort for 7th blinking place
I took hards for this race and they were definitely better over a race distance. My meds were fubared in race 1 by lap 11.
So yet again, no lucky break for me in this series, still languishing down the table.
Great racing and great combo, congrats to the podiums
Great to see another car having an advantage at this track with the Cossies, been quite interesting to see different cars have different strengths.