What a great race, really enjoyed it!
Got a good start and just managed to stay in the lead off the line, Mike and FMG had me on the back foot for a while and it was only after they started fighting amongst themselves that I was able to pull out a small gap on them.
I had a lead of nearly ten seconds when it was time for the first pit stop, but came into pit lane far too hot and overshot my crew by a mile! Decided to carry on and try again next lap, rather than reverse up as there was no speed limit and I only lost a few seconds. Problem was, I then had to fuel save heavily and cut the ignition on the straight to try and eke out that last litre of fuel. Mike cruised by on the entry to pit lane as I coughed and spluttered my way in.
Came back out ten seconds behind Mike and on a bit of a charge as I was annoyed that my own stupidity had cost me the lead. I was originally planning on an early second stop to change tyres, but knowing that I'd thrown away all that time to Mike and the fact the the car was still feeling alright I thought I'd see how it went. Also, I'd noticed that the gap to FMG was staying at a fairly constant 20 seconds and assuming that he'd taken tyres on his first stop, he wouldn't be needing them again and would pass me in the pits if I took tyres.
As it was, I was able to catch Mike again and pass on the straight (shorter gearing was really helping). Built up a small gap again before the second stop and managed to find my crew this time! Fueled and ready for the last stint, all was going well until I noticed that XD was reporting only 7 laps of fuel left, instead of 14. Thought it was a bit strange until the realization dawned that I'd calculated fuel earlier offline (without the multiplier), and was going to have to pit for a third time!
So, third stop out of the way and caution to the wind I somehow managed to catch Mike again on the penultimate lap and scraped a somewhat dubious pass round the outside - Sorry again, I thought I was all the way through at the time! Held on through the last lap with a rather messy slide through the esses then reached the safety of the straight and then the line. Great awareness and courtesy by those guys that were lapped as well, by the way
Grats to Mike and FMG. Thanks for the invite Clive and grats to you and Mark for the team win as well, good driving and team effort
Hope to see you out on track again in the future John. I want another chance.
I'm sure you'll get it, Mike
especially if you pop over to NG for the GTL/P&G races. Admittedly, I did get quite a lot of practice for this one, so I might not be able to give you such a challenge next time!
I can't usually do Thursdays but will try to pop in if I'm free (racing for SBRC, of course
), was good fun racing with you guys.
Cheers
John