Congrats to Iestyn on a fine victory! Great drive, amigo.
Good to see old bud Tommie score a most worthy P2! Ripping stuff!
And Greg! MUMMA MIA! Up from the back of the grid to score a podium. Gotta be very satisfying. Well done.
Grieved to see that both Robert and Clive were early fallers. I'd noted the shunt in Stavelot on Lap01 but had no idea whom was involved. Bad luck, gys.
The DOHC Indy Ford in Tris' McLaren cried 'ENOUGH' far too soon. It would have been fun to see how he'd make out over a longer stretch. Still miles ahead in the standings.
I ran off from a very conservative start to just put in miles over the first half of the race and avoid trouble. I have to say that this was very nerve-wracking as with cars immediately ahead and behind, I viewed each as potential disaster.
Affairs crystallized fairly soon after the start and it seemed that Bernie, Dave and I were forming up into a nice little trio. They each put me in their mirrors early on and I was happy to just watch the give & take between them from a second or so back. I wasn't going to do anything in the way of risking contact til we reached 50% race distance. All I wanted to do was stay close. I must say that both BD and DR were driving very well and must have been enjoying things enormously. Many were the laps where they exchanged positions multiple times over the course of the eight miles.
With my pitboard giving me seven laps to run, that was the signal for me to up the pace and to start making a bid for positions. From breathing the throttle on the Masta to keep the revs in check in the slipstream, I now felt it was time to use it to my advantage and closed. Saw something on the order of 192-93 mph on the run into the Kink. That's about 9-10 mph up on a solo pass. Cool!
On the climb out of La Carriére on Lap08, I just edged by Bernie's Brabham to move up to P9. Dave was just ahead in the Cooper. Lap09, I skipped
by Dave on the run into the Kink with Bernie only metres behind. I knew full well it was going to be well nigh impossible to stage a breakaway but I pushed on to make the best of the lead of the trio.
Lap10 and Dave returned the favour with a carbon-copy of my pass on him on the Masta. Sadly, it seems that Bernie, just behind me now, went into the Kink very slightly off line and clipped the rail on the right. A lurid spin meant lost contact with the group but he was able to continue. A
special mention for Billy here. The trio mentioned thus far was next to a quartet at times as Billy ran very well indeed to be just off my tail for many a lap. Indeed, at the end of Lap03, he was less than a second behind me. A slide through Malmedy and a brush with the hedge on Lap05 delayed Billy long enough that he lost the slipstream and fell back. Bad luck but a noteworthy drive nonetheless and in fact, he did not finish that far behind Bernie at race's end.
Lap11 and I re-passed Dave on the Masta. Still running in lock-step. My advantage was short-lived. Dave passed again on the hill approaching the notorious Blanchimont. A fine battle!
I was particularly pleased thus far with my braking performance into La Source. At best a tricky deal, I found that I was getting excellent and consistent retardation there.
Lap12 and with Dave just metres ahead on the climb out of La Carriére, I noted a slight slowing of his Cooper. Then... KAPOW! Bits of Maser V-12 and Duckhams oil wafted over my Lotus. Engine kaput. Bad luck indeed there, Dave, but do have some consolation in staging a fine race up to that misfortune.
Safe in P8 now with quite some time in hand over Bernie, I started to cruise it in and came close to dropping the ball on Lap13. Going through Malmedy, I was too close to the right-hand verge and it caught me. The Lotus was pulled off to the right and skipped through the hedge. Thought I was a goner for sure! I fully expected the hedge to spit me into a spin with Bernie not all that far behind to come roaring over the crest and drill me in a classic T-bone. Luckily, the Lotus came out of the hedge pointed in the right direction but I was crawling at a snail's pace. I cursed my unforced error and pedaled it back up to speed as quickly as possible, watching my mirrors intently, fully expecting to see the green Brabham closing rapidly. That didn't happen as Bernie was further delayed and I held on to make it home with thanks to the gods for sparing me a disaster.
Off to Austria next on the super-fast Zeltweg course. Tris leads the standings comfortably with myself in P2 and Andreas back a bit in P3. Andreas' excellent drive in the Lotus43 here shaved a couple of points off his deficit.
The fat lady is warming up in the wings!
PS: Pardon any spelling or grammatical errors. The 'preview' function does not appear to be kicking in.