Qually went brilliantly. Set a PB of about 1:33.8, Purdie was ahead
but then MJ knocked about three thousandths of a second off my time
, went back out & knocked another tenth off my time on my next flying lap... then another four tenths on the lap after that to put me clear of MJ & challenging Purdie. Where all this pace was coming from I had no idea but I don't like to complain
. Managed to get up again by two tenths in the 1st sector twice but couldn't carry it to the end to move up to 1st GT2 on the grid. Very happy with 2nd though... always nice to have MJ behind
Due to the extra flying laps, I didn't get a chance to do any driving with a heavy fuel load & found the car under-steering on the fast bends & over-steering under braking. MJ would have had a good view of that from half an inch behind me for ten plus laps. We were tagged on the back of Purdie till the GT1's were no longer holding him up & the pressure from MJ started taking all my attention. I was driving on the edge/past my ability & you did brilliantly not to catch me a few times
, eventually I missed a (another) braking point, tried to overcompensate by getting the power down with some opposite lock, a wheel slipped on the kerb & as I span, this time you could avoid me. Lucky I think it was minimal & I was pleased to see you scamper off down the road... also that we'd built up enough cushion for me to get going again still ahead of Spanner.
Spanner was on my tail for the next one & a half laps but think he lost his back end at T2 which let teamie Blunder slip through & I surprisingly (after Tuesday's sprint) didn't see Spanner again. MJ was then pulling away from me & had already upped the gap to about eight/nine secs as I increased the gap back to Blunder. I was just settling my ambitions for third place (despite not being half way in the race yet) when from out of the smoke & sand I saw MJ recovering & I slipped though back into 2nd
.
Having felt like I lost any chance I may have had, during pitting in the last two races... I practiced pitting a fair bit before last night... it paid off. I felt like I gained about a 10-15 sec advantage over MJ (& maybe I got lucky with traffic
) & when Purdie later did his pit stop I was only 11 secs behind him. So it paid off. The race excitement kind of tailed off after the pit stops, Purdie too far ahead, Team mate Blunder bringing home third a safe buffer behind me, I was just able to knock in a couple of decent laps, concentrate on keeping it on the black stuff & enjoy watching the GT1's fly past.
Thanks to all the GT1 lappers, all well done & most patient.
Yet another most enjoyable race & Team Oldie have worked ourselves a decent position in the Team championship too (nice one partner
). I wonder if the two Legend's Porka's will be able to respond at Silverstone