Wow - what a race!
I've always struggled with specific corners at VIR so I tried a number of tweaks to the setup (which I'll upload to the Team Shark site tomorrow) and finally settled on a softer, lower front end and more rear wing than I was expecting to run after yesterday's practice. Binned the car at the start of my second qualifying lap ending any shot at pole, but happily my first lap was good enough for a front row start.
Got a great jump off the line but not quite enough to challenge Paul round the outside of T1 and slotted into second; was expecting him to pull away once his tyres warmed up, but with such a big draft up the back straight, and with me finally sorting out a half decent line through Oak Tree Corner, I was able to stay with him for lap after lap, losing a little at the top of the Esses but feeling that I had a slightly better car almost everywhere else.
Darren was similarly able to stay with me until that mistake; I guessed it was probably at T1, but I was concentrating on Paul so hared that I didn't notice he wasn't there any more for a few seconds.
As usual with the Radical, the tyres just go on and on and the car gets faster and faster as the fuel load burns off, so with the pressure from behind removed, I went into full attack mode, hoping to scare Paul into an uncharacteristic error. Almost got it with a few to go, and tried to fight my way into the lead round the outside of T1 - a move I've made with both successful and disastrous results in the past
- but couldn't make it stick, and with 2 or 3 to go I caught one of the curbs in the early wiggles and lost a second gathering it back up; with no draft I couldn't catch back up to Paul and had to settle for 2nd in the end.
That's enough to maintain a healthy lead in the championship; with the Late Model up next and the MX-5 scheduled for the final round that's two races where I should do well, but of course there's the F1 race in between and I'll likely be nowhere in that (having already missed a round I've not got a dropped score to fall back on), so it's still all to play for...
Well done to Paul for keeping his cool under such pressure. It's a pity we're not getting bigger grids, but if it's the right few drivers that's all you need for an awesome race.
RESULTS UPIf Vincenzo and Anthony can make known their forum identities I'll link up their results properly.