phew that was a 'proper' endurance race. My eyes were completely squirelled after 2+ hours intense concentration
Evening didnt start well when the missus decided to serve up dinner at 8.05pm
so i had to miss practise and half of qually. Then had a couple of really frustrating runs where on the 2nd flying lap whilst 2secs faster than my first flyer i ran out of fuel in the final sector as had forgot to change my qually setup to suit 2x fuel burn
then on my second run out the blinking session ended when 2/3rds round again whilst 2+secs ahead of my time...grrr. So had to settle for 9th or 10th on grid which was disapointing.
Early half of the race was a lesson in frustration. It quickly became apparent that i had more wing (and in some cases a much slower car!) than the guys around me as they were like grannies in the corners but left me for dead on the straights. Every corner became an episode of avoiding actions trying not to hit the much slower car that had just gazumped me down the straights. I take it you were all on 1-3 or 4 or such like? I stuck to 2-6 as couldnt face any lower in the wet. The fezzas and TT's Marcos could literally just pull out several hundred metres away from me even with me trying to tow them !
But i was still enjoying myself mostly.
Had several incidents due to the slippery track surface and stupid low speed tyre grip bug that afflicts the GTR series and turned the air blue on a few occasions when it just would not grip out of corner exits. Also got a stop and go for pitlane speeding even though i use autopit
and that prevented me chasing Matt ahead at one point when only 20secs behind. Had a good race with Legz early on and TT later on but that was about it for racing, the rest alas was pure grip management/frustration as the track just never really dried out until perhaps final 10minutes or so. My car was a tad stiff for a wet track so was always tough as i thought it would dry out earlier than it did.
To round it off, i had to make a flipping splash and dash with 2 laps remaining so couldnt even chase TT to the line when we had been a few seconds apart
But i finished 6th overall and i was quite pleased with that considering the effort just to get the car home and my trials throughout! :)Pleased that most stayed the distance where possible and big congratulations to H@L on the win and the two pody guys
Its a fantastic achievement to win at Le Mans, especially in those weather conditions.
