Thanks for the Easter treat.

It was fun trying to wrestle the Lotus 43 around Aintree but was not the ideal chariot.

In race one it took me a while to realise that I was not using my intended race setup.  It took at least until half way before I had reprogrammed my poor head to make best use of what I had.  I had a good battle with Paul and managed to finish in one piece.

I set off for the garage to find out what had happened to my setup and by the time I hit the track there was hardly time for a lap. My frantic search to discover what fuel I had in the race setup ensured that I would miss the start and would be obliged to start from the pit lane.  By now I was getting a little wound up.  I managed to swap accidents with Bernie and eventually came out on top, although GPL has me a lap down.

In the third race I actually got to make a start with the right ratios and it was quite good. At T1 I squeezed inside a spinning Eagle and was relieved to find that I had still left enough room on the inside for a Cooper to blast past.  Sadly the cold tyres caught me out later in the lap and I was relegated to the back.

At least I made it to the finish in all races without any Shift-R being called for.

That's one thing that I do manage most of the time.  I do a short run at race speed and subtract the fuel left in from the fuel that I started with.  Divide that by the number of laps covered and then multiply it by the race distance.  I then multiply by 1.1 to add the ten percent for slipstreaming.  I usually then add 1.3 ltr, which is the fuel left in the tank when the engine starts to splutter.

That has always provided plenty of fuel.  Probably too much but then there is no way that I can indulge in mid-race mental arithmatic without stuffing the car into a hedge/tree/straw bale etc.. 

I once threw a way a win at Bremgarten by attempting to scratch my nose so I have to keep it simple once the race is on!

I have always understood that fuel consumption is determined by engine revs.

Congratulations to Hristo and Dimi, a very clever race.

For me it was most frustrating, as the corners were always filled with the Bulgarian folk dancing pair.

I couldn't attack one without running into the other!  I was even having to dab the brakes into T1 to avoid hitting them!

Normally the SL would eat its tyres but they were running at a pace that kept them useable.  Running behind them, my tyres were in the green most of the time.

The servers running to test connection are not the same IP address as given in the announcement.

Could I just emphasise that entering the track between T1 and T2 is an absolute no no. It puts you bang on the line of any car that has just started a flying lap.

I would say so Syd.  If you pull out anywhere else there is a good chance that you will destroy someone's flying lap and they won't even be visible when you first put a wheel on the track.

Thank you for asking and thanks Phil for the clarification.

Great race report Hristo and very impressive how you have understood the essence of 55mod racing in just so few outings.

My race was just how I like them, a few pixels to chase and nobody breathing down my neck.

I had done four or five race distance runs before Sunday and was much quicker in them than I was last night! In the end I came to the conclusion that being in "careful" mode didn't heat my rear tyres and give the slightly looser rear end that I needed, especially at T1. Don't think that I got that right until the last lap.

Anyway, a slightly better result than my usual 6th.

Well done to Evil, Jonny and Enrique.

Looking forward to Indianapolis.

Well done Fran and Matt.

Sadly a darn long way and the wrong side of London to boot!

Added to which I couldn't spot a decent caravan site with serviced pitches!

My race started to fall apart on lap three when entering the stadium section.  I was following Hristo, Enrique and Jonathan and it appeared that Enrique was having a tentative look down the inside of Hristo when Jonathan decided(or his brakes did) that he was going to make it three abreast!

In the mayhem that ensued, Jonathan bounced off the side of Enrique for a very short route across the grass from which he emerged in second place.  Enrique was knocked sideways to the left and how he missed Hristo I don't know.

That left me in a nice spot sat behind Hristo but with my view filled with cars going in all directions I lost the back end and did a half spin onto the grass, which allowed the world and his mate to pass me.  Nobody actually hit me, I just didn't have the skill to keep it on the grey bit.

The next lap at the same point I managed to rear end Leo for which I do apologise.  I wasn't tail-gating and thought that I had left enough room but it transpired otherwise.  I thought that I was getting close but not that close and I don't think that it was much of a contact but the GPL Crash Engine had other ideas.  I didn't stop because it appeared to me as Leo shot off to the left that he only had three wheels.

I was trying to catch Fulvio after that and had Phil in his Lancia catching me.  I never made any progress with regard to Fulvio but had a good battle with Phil, which sadly he won.

That's three poor results but is probably still the best start to a season that I have had for some time!

See you in South Africa.

Another storming 6th for me.

Great battle with Phil.

I don't get the chance to watch the replay until tonight but I may owe Leo an apology.

We look after our granddaughter on Mondays so I am just snatching a few minutes to post this.  And my phone is taken over to watch her stuff all day too!

I agree that it is much easier to ignore the white lines and probably worth about half a second per lap.  Perhaps more if we can master cutting the last three corners as a sequence . I have zip all in the way of brakes by then so easing the corners is a big help.

Basically we are now saying that Hockenheim should be driven like Mexico.

Well that has rendered useless all the practice that I have done to date.

Before everyone starts taking liberties with the track limits, could we have a statement regarding track limits?  

There are one or two places in the stadium section that require special mention.