Grats to Geoffers Ziu and Fulvio on making it a clean sweep on the podium for the Silver Arrows. I tried my best, but was just a little too slow to upset their party
.
There seems to be a pattern developing in my car choice...... Whenever I think I have selected the best car for a particular circuit and expect to racing against similar machinery, I seem to be on a grid where I stand out like the proverbial sore thumb!!!
Last night's race was a demonstration of my flawed thinking. In my head, I had somehow reasoned that the D-type was THE car for this track and I remembered that Erling had demonstrated how quickly it could be made to go. TBH I fully expected to see Erling in a D-type!!
So I found myself on a grid surrounded by Mercs and wondering how I had got it so wrong
I knew that I should be able to get to 10 laps on a tankful of fuel, and the plan was ( there is always a plan, but it does not always work lol ) to go easy on the tyres and just stop for a couple of gallons of fuel to get to the finish.
The problem was that although Geoffers cleared off into the distance, Ziu and Fulvio stayed tantalisingly within reach for many laps and I was sucked into a battle that did not help my tyre wear
Ziu stopped quite early and the Geoffers and Fulvio pitted, so I found myself in the lead at around lap 9. I guess that all the early slipstreaming had saved a little fuel and I was able to comfortably get to the start of lap 12 before I needed fuel. As I approached the pits I had a dilemma, the tyres had suffered more than I had anticipated, but they were not yet into the red zone.......change or not change???
A quick look at HUD decided that problem. I might just get out in 3rd if i did a quick, fuel only, stop. I was just trundling out of the pits when Fulvio swept past in 3rd spot...
and it soon became clear that on my worn tyres I could not match his pace without risking a major off.
Of more immediate concern was Dominick, who was using the cloaking device fitted to his car to hide his position on HUD!!! On my display he was listed as 5th but DNF, so I was shocked to see a car in my mirrors as I left the pits!!! I had to run the D-type on a knjfe edge of grip for a few lpas until I could no lomger see him behind and the last 2 laps I was able to concentrate on keeping an increasingly skittish Jag on the tarmac.
4th was far better than I expected when I saw the grid full of Mercs, but the bonus was completing a pitstop without any screw ups!!!! woohoo