I guess I have the internet gremlins to thank for that result (provisional).
I decided that I had to use either the mini or the Escort for this race or else I would run out of options later in this series. Of the two cars I found that the mini was slightly quicker although the setup ( modified from Geoffers offering) had a habit of biting me on the bum under heavy braking.
So I jumped on the server as early as I could and set about honing the setup ( and more importantly my technique for driving the mini!!)
The eureka moment came when I adjusted the brake balance slightly rearwards and tweaked the castor angle. Suddenly, I found I could brake in to the apex and allow the tail end to slide around so that the car was pointing where i wanted to go on the exit. Then I could feed in the motion lotion, using the front wheel drive to drag me out of the corner. That knocked a couple of seconds off my PB!!!
However....The start of the 1st race was a disaster for me. I over revved the start and the noise of all the cars passing me on the run to T1 drowned out my little engine so I was late upshifting and dropped to last place I think??!!
Then I got a little over enthusiastic trying to make up lost time and managed to totally lose it around T4-5, finding myself parked in the gravel with a stalled engine. The whole field were out of sight before I restarted.
Actually it was quite fun chasing down the cars in front and although the mini lost out on the straights, it would make up loads of time through the corners. Then i found myself in a 4 way scrap for 3rd spot(??) and things were getting very interesting between all the different cars. Erling was long gone and away in the lead, but I think my pace might have got me 3rd or even maybe a second spot if the race had continued. I guess other cars around me had a different view of how things might work out??
Then it all went wrong when the gremlins pulled the interweb plug.
By the time we restarted with race 2 I was beginning to feel that I had finally got to grips with the front end of the mingey and was a little more confident. The start was still bad and the field swamped me....but I noticed that Erling suffered a similar problem so did not feel too bad
The extra cornering speed of the mini took some getting used to and several times I almost rammed the car in front
. I was determined to get onto Erling's tail if i could and follow him, hoping to pick up some tips on Mini driving
A few demon braking moves helped by a few mistakes ahead and I was closing on the leading pair with Mr Geezer looking a little "on the limit" up front with his Beemer.
I think it was Erling who wobbled first and I took the opportunity to squirt through on the inside and scuttle off into the distance. Eventually the BMW gave up the battle between grip and centrifugal force and I was leading AND IN A MINI!!!??
Erling threatened to push me all the way for a few laps but suddenly he was not there any more, and I had about 10 seconds of clear air
. From then on it was just managing the gap and the tyres to the end and the flag.
Pleasantly surprised to make the mini go as well as it did after all my previous attempts ended in embarrassing failure.
Grats to all who finished and this was ( for me at least) a great circuit/car combo.