Dana, please don't worry about being less than perfect around us guys, if you had seen my first few PnG race last year you would know what I mean
.
You would not believe how badly wrong some of us can be in the heat of battle
. We know that drivers do not deliberately throw themselves into the armco ( well I have my doubts about one or two individuals, but I'm saying nothing!). Just join in and have some fun.
Still don't believe how fast those 427's are being driven, I obviously need to get some instruction from somewhere!!!
Grats to Federico, John and Clive.
Simon's tardy exit from the grid was an opportunity to gain a place, only to be passed by some lunatic in a Fezza...must have been a hairdresser on speed I think.
I was hoping that the Daytona would have more grunt than the 275 when we unleashed the horses and sure enough I just breezed past up the back straight.
With cold tyres, I was not keen to examine the limits of adhesion too early, but when Simon eased past Jester and started closing on me I had to up my pace a little and I paid the price by running wide and bouncing along the grass.....rats!!!!
The rest of the race was great fun trying to regain that place.
I think there was something in the setup ( or maybe the car #??) that made the difference. Because there were certainly areas where I could take 0.5 secs out of any lead that Simon had, but on the straights even with slipstream Simon could ease away again, which was extremely frustrating!!!!
Mid race I held back to save some rubber for the last lap banzai move, and to allow me to see the apexes clearly and not bounce over the inner kerbs!!
With 4 laps to go I put the hammer down and got back onto Simon's bootlid. Managed to keep the gap small enough to close under braking for Sciere, hoping to stay close enough to pounce at Six Freres on the last lap.
A perfect plan...badly executed!! I ran wide and span 180 deg at Sciere. Simon was long gone before I recovered.
So for the last lap I thought why not go for a PB and threw caution to the wind along with any sense of control. 2 spins later and I could see Jester in my mirrors, but about 3 secs back, so I cruised it carefully to the flag.
A great race with Simon and I'm still in awe of those 427 times at the front.
What setup did you use Simon? was it Stig's offering?