Nice drive, Sam! Grats on a fine win.
A good job for P2, Tris. Congratulations on earning the S30 F2 Championship Title!
And Clive... You devil! You were just toying with me, weren't you? Letting me have a sniff of P3 for a bit before reeling me back in like a fish on the line.
Grats on P3 after a fine recovery.
I was quite pleased to start P5 with a PB in the BMW-powered Lola. Axel was starting immediately ahead doing a sterling job in the Protos. I maintained my position off the grid despite a slight bog and tucked in behind Axel with Carlos hot on my tail. Axel seemed to be having a real handful in places and a slight slip by grabbing the inner curb in Westfield got him sideways and the door opened for me to edge by on Lap02. I was then prepared to have a real hard time holding off the gang but soon, a nasty shunt in Clearways put my pursuers well behind. Bad luck, chaps. I was surprised to see that I was running P3 but did recall seeing someone off in South Bank without a clue as to whom it might be. Soon, it became known that it was Clive as he was shown as P4 on my board and closing rapidly.
I didn't resist and let him pass comfortably on the pit straight as by this point, my vision was collapsing. It was a repeat of my troubles in the recent Friday Special run at Watlkins Glen '71 in the CanAms. A nightmare. From here on in, I took Paddock and Clearways very conservatively.
Back in P4 but with a good cushion on the next man down, I carried on but once again was surprised to see my board show me in P3.
It was Clive again off in South Bank that let me through and in the fog of my vision, I didn't even see him off the road! What a joke!
By 2/3 distance, Clive was again knocking on my door but this time, I decided to give him a bit of a race. A poor decision, really, considering that I couldn't see much of anything. Coming off South Bank, Clive moved left early and I stayed right on the run up to Hawthorn. We ran side-by-side through the corner and it was only on the exit that Clive out-gunned me going up the hill to take over P3. That was keen but again, in hindsight, silly of me to risk it.
I made no attempt to hang onto Clive and just settled in to run to the flag error free. I kept a close eye(as best I could, at least)on my pit board to the gap back to Bastian(nice recovery, btw, after being involved in that big Clearways shunt). It was falling consistently but I had enough of a cushion to hang on to P4.