Congratulations to Robert on winning this race and the Trophy with a dominant series of wins.
Going in to this race I knew that to have any hope of prising the trophy from Robert's grasp, I would have to finish first and he would have to retire and score zero points. Of course, neither happened
Well, that was a dream that almost turned into a nightmare when the screen froze during qualifying and I had to do a CTRL/ALT/DEL and crash the PC. When I rebooted my wheel had lost complete calibration and FF
with just 5 mins left. I had to reboot yet again and hope that it sorted itself.
With 3 mins left I got back to the server, but the wheel was off center. So went through the calibration and got it ( almost ) straight with a few seconds left. Fortunately despite leaving the server my one quali lap was still standing and it kept me on the front row.
I'm not sure why but the Lotus seemed very slow to warm it's tyres and the first two laps were like skating on ice. My only consolation was that Robert appeared to be struggling as well.
But then, just like the previous races Robert proved that he was just the little smoother/faster/ and more consistent than I was, and he eased away. Until he had a moment at the chicane and the gap closed. He eased away again but got tangled with a backmarker at Woodcote and I was able to steal the lead. I was driving on the limit, instead of keping it smooth and Robert was on my tail within a few laps. Eventually, ambition exceeded ability at Madgewicks and I ran wide, gifting Robert his rightful place
Another error allowed Robert to escape and I know that he tried to give me the win at the flag, but it was not deserved by me so I forced him to go over the line first
4 races and 4 wins for Robert proved that he was the master alien. I tried my best to pressure him in all the races but I think it shows that I need to do much more practice if I am going to have even a chance of matching his WR pace.
Many thanks to all who took part in these 4 races and I hope that you felt it a fitting tribute to Joe "Beefpie" Shaw. The sprint races felt very intense and competitive and the different cars hopefully presented a challenge.