Grats to Tim and Clive for bringing home Team Gordini in 2nd and 3rd spots. No mean feat in the French Onion Vendors transport.
After a rare ( for me) practice session with Clive on Sat evening, I was hoping that I might be competitive for this race. Opted for the solid old Connaught, although I briefly considered the 250F ( maybe save that for a faster circuit ?), or the Gordini fast over 1 lap, but those brakes??!! and with Double Droit to face I chickened out.
.
Surprised to get pole early in quali, so switched to a full fuel load to check consumption for the remaining time. Then Tim turned his turbo boost up and got very close to my time, dragging Axel with him in the Lancia. I was fairly confident that I could out drag Tim to T1, (the Gordini is a real problem off the line), but a Lancia could be a problem if it got ahead of me?. I doubt that the Connaught would have enough grunt to pass a quick Lancia
.
Almost bogged it down at the start but dipped the clutch and made it to T1 still in first place...…..a quick glance in the mirrors and at prib showed that Tim had been swamped and Axel was 2nd!! Could I get to DD ahead of a quick Lancia and avoid any brake failures behind me?? Just about managed to keep 1st place by using ALL my brakes at DD in one hit.
The 2nd part of my race plan was to build enough of a gap to be safe if someone behind lost brakes. So pushed as hard as I dared, but Axel held the gap for a few laps, until I think he went off at DD? Suddenly I was 200mtrs clear of Fran ...and Tim who was getting the Gordini rolling.
Tim moved up to 2nd spot and I watched the safety gap very carefully. I did not want to push too hard and risk a mistake, so I just very slowly eased the pressure on and watched the gap grow by about 10 mtrs a lap.
Then I think Tim made a small mistake and the gap doubled. For the middle part of the race I was simply running steady laps and wanted to be sure of fuel.
I just had to get to the flag without a mistake, but then I spotted Clive's Gordini ahead with about 6 laps to . Just had to try and lap him, didn't I?. Another lap and I might have passed Clive but instead had to tail him across the line.
A few more races in this season and it will be a tough job to overhaul Mr Loynes' points lead on the faster circuits.