I received a plain brown envelope, in the quiet shadows behind the pits, from a fellow competitor just before this race in exchange for technical info on the Wazamobile. I now suspect that I was the victim of a dastardly scam by the "Green Meanies" to find the weak link in the all conquering Waza's armoury.
Joe Beefpie was awesomely quick in his Brabham and with Al not far behind him in qually in another Brabby, followed by a horde of other Brabs and BRMs I felt distinctly vulnerable around this track in my Honda.
As I have posted before this was a new track for me and although the layout was quite simple the camber and altitude changes made it a very tricky circuit to find the ideal line.
I think 3rd on that grid was better than I could have expected and I was more than pleased to find that I could keep pace with Al's Brabham in the early stages ( although Joe was in a class of his own and romped away into the distance!!).
I had promised myself that I would race for the finish here and not make any risky moves that would surely end in grief against one of those concrete walls!! After about 5 laps following Al I had a momentary lapse of concentration at the end of Dragon's Wing bend, just as it tightens ( a spot I had concentrated on during all my preparations as crucial for carrying speed through that tight right hander) I ran fractionally deep and missed the apex. My momentum took me wide and onto that narrow grass strip which slid me broadside into the wall.
For a moment I thought I had got away with it, but the hairpin left and the right hander onto the straight showed that the steering had been damaged. It took me a lap to find a way to drive around this problem, but that meant using 1st gear to make the back step out on corners..............something that was to cause my eventual retirement I think
Al's Brab, was long gone by now and spin whilst coming to grips with the change of handling allowed Samb to close up in his BRM. The next few laps were an exercise in concentration as I fought the dodgy handling and tried to break away from Samb. I think Sam must have had a "moment" somewhere because he suddenly dropped back and I thought I was OK for a possible 3rd place.
WRONG!!! it's always the way in GPL, that when you think you have everything under control...you really havn't.
I suspect that having to drop to 1st gear where I would have been in 2nd if the car was undamaged wrecked the internals of the engine and eventually it started blowing smoke on that fast sweep. It has been so long since i blew an engine that I could not remember if I had to complete 50% or 75% of the race to qualify for points, so i motored on at a steady speed trying to stay out of everyone's way ( apologies if I hindered anyone) Eventually , the few pistons that were still working broke and it was all over, but I had completed the 75% so i hope I get at least something from the race.
Grats to Joe and Al and whoever else finished this race on a circuit that was nnever designed with a 67 Honda in mind ( IMHO). I shall have to have a word with the person who chooses these tracks!!!