I was little late in joining the server for this race..........decorating duties
.
But I was not too late to witness Sam stick in a blistering lap with a 1:05!!! Ronnie was not far behind and Dean looked menacing as well as Axel. Geeeez this was going to be a fast race if those times were anything to go by. Especially on this track where there are only about 1.5 passing places.
I did my customary laps on race fuel to get dialled in to the track and managed to temporarily get a place on the 2nd row,.............hmmmm with 15 minutes to go that looked unlikely to survive given the pace of those around me. So, I confess that this time I dumped a couple of galls of fuel in an attempt to improve my qually position.
It did not work lol!!
and I made only a marginal improvement.
So I decided instead to go back to race fuel and concentrate on maximising my pace for the early laps with cold tyres and a heavy car. I was gobsmacked when I looked at Prib 10 minutes later to see yours truly on pole, but only by a couple of hundredths of a second. "That surely would be beaten in the last few minutes" I thought.
But the time stayed there as I nervously watched the last few cars complete qually. Woohoo what a lucky stroke!! Now all I had to do was nail some fast laps on cold tyres, break the tow to Sam, build a gap between myself and about 6 others who had posted qually times within tenths of what I had fluked. yeah right lol!!!
With the F2 slipstream and Sam in a super quick Matra what was there to worry about eh??? I nailed the gas off the line and made T1 first hugging the inside line.
T2 was Ok and I got a fast exit and committed as much as I dared on cold tyres to that tricky T3 leading onto the back straight, using all of the track and as much welly as the tyres would take.......but still Sam was within slipstream range.??!!!?? .
If I gave him an opening he would be past like a shot, so I move to the right very early....if he wanted to pass me it would have to be the looong way around the hairpin at the end of the straight.
Somewhere I pulled a few more metres out and by the second lap had just enough lead to be safe from the slipstream...he could close the gap but not enough to attempt a pass
But the pace was insane!!! I was right on the very edge of what I could control and there were a few moments when sphincter flutter almost got the better of me
.
Then Sam was gone from 2nd but Ronnie had taken up the challenge, geez I must have wicked somewhere cos I was getting no rest!!! I pressed on concentrating on getting my braking points right for the critical corners and making clean exits....when I say clean, what I really mean is only 2 or 3 wheels on the grass and armfuls of opp lock.!!!
I think Ronnie eventually had a "moment" and I suddenly had a small cushion that allowed me to relax just slightly, which actually produced some better lap times by a few tenths and I was able to ease the gap out.
It was lucky that I had such a large gap with 10 laps to go because that early pace where I maxed out each and every gear change had consumed far more fuel than I had anticipated and I spent those last laps short shifting and coasting into corners, whilst watching the gap back to second and praying that it stayed big enough to allow me to creep home....unlike Edmonton!!!
Grats to Sam and Ronnie and all the finishers. Also thanks to those drivers I had to lap, who allowed me a safe passage as soon as they were able. It is not an easy track to move off line on and I appreciated the fact that they kept a steady line and did not panic. I did not want the added pressure of guessing what a car in front was going to do.
Looks like Ronnie and myself might have shot ourselves in the foot by scoring too many points too soon............we are both +30 over the next guy................oops!