Grats to podium and all finishers. Sadly, I was in neither group
Grats to my mate Andy for almost getting to the podium
It transpired that the Aston was the wrong car, on the wrong track, with the wrong tyres. Maybe some more diligent preparation off line would have highlighted the potential mistake, but that is not my way
. I simply selected the car that had most drives left
By the time I had the setup and handling organised during the server practice, I discovered that I could only use 4 out of the 5 gears ??!! There was a small niggle at the back of my mind over the tyre wear when I ran about ten laps towards the end of practice to confirm the fuel needed.
Well the race started well enough and after following Dan and Erling's battle for several laps watching the action, they kindly vacated the track and allowed me a view of an inviting open road. Tony was quite pushy behind in his nimble Healey and I was relieved to slowly ease away to a 5 second lead.
But, as we approached half distance it was clear that my tyres were suffering and reaching 44 laps was going to be a challenge. I was hoping that others might be having similar issues. It became clear at 75% distance that "others" were not having the problems that I was. This was the first time that I can recall such a dramatic drop in grip from tyre wear in GTL. Within 1 lap, as the tyre wear moved into the red zone, the grip seemed to fall off a cliff
. My lap times dropped by 1-2 secs and were getting slower and I was defenceless as the other cars swept past.
5 laps later I was trying to hold on to Fulvio's Ace, but failing miserably, as the car slowly became unpredictable and undriveable eventually snapping back from a slide to fire me into the scenery. The car was damaged, but there was no point in limping to the pits for new tyres as the stop would only guarantee last place. with no time to improve, so I retired with my bent car and injured pride.
Previous races had shown me that the Ace and the Healey are gentle on their tyres, so maybe I should have used my last drive in one of those around here. Ahhh! the wisdom of hindsight