RIP Stirling.
Grats to Yannick and the podium. Clive in his reserved 2nd place
and a great drive by Phil to bring it in 3rd.
It was tempting to take something with more poke, like the Maserati or Lancia...maybe even the Connaught? lol. I have rarely even driven the Mercs or Ferraris, so did not even have a working setup knowledge to start from.
Then I thought I would give Clive a chance of glory, because deep down I am a gentleman
and I actually had a moment where I felt sorry for him
, so I chose the Vanwall as the appropriate car for a tribute to Stirling at Aintree.
I could not anticipate that Yannick would spoil Clive's day lol and set some great times in the 250F
. I was struggling with my intention to try and get the Vanwall on to the podium if I could, but finally towards the end of qualifying I was beginning to find some pace and technique to make the Vanwall competitive(ish).
So, we lined up on the grid with Yannick on pole and a couple of Mercs threatening to use their power. The lack of grunt in the Vanwall was exposed off the grid and Fulvio outdragged me to T1 in his Merc. But I was at least in touch with the leaders until...…as I exited Anchor my PC had a massive glitch...the screen froze momentarily and the FF spiked through the wheel. Apologies for the chaos guys, but there was nothing I could do and I headed for the grass, to get out of the way, as soon as I regained some control over my controls!!
I rejoined dead last, which was not part of the game plan! and then suffered another glitch about a lap later. After that I was able to set about chasing down the field and I had some great racing with Doni in the Connaught. Sorry for the bump Doni when the 2 cars ahead spun at Anchor and I just could not slow any more of turn tighter to avoid the touch. Later I caught Axel in his Lancia and chased him for many laps and later when we caught Fulvio I could see 4th place. But there were two very fast cars in the way lol.
Axel ran wide and I was able to slip through and focus on Fulvio's Silver Arrow and when he made a mistake I took the chance and fired the Vanwall up to 4th place.
Hopes of a podium were very distant at that point because Yannick, Clive and Phil were just too far ahead and there were too few laps left to even attempt chasing them. More important was to keep things tidy, ahead of Fulvio and hold on to 4th place lol.
Great fun guys...on to Goodwood and the 65's