After receiving the attentions of Matt(Bullbar)Rowe in T1 I thought that I was in for a grim old time and I was right!
Apart from in John’s hands it really is a heap.
Matt’s half-hearted attempts to pass didn’t cut much ice and that was before I knew that it was he that had caused my problems!
Bill vanished on lap one and Eblitz was probably on the outside of T1 as I went past on lap two.
I passed Alex and was closing in on Tony although I think that Matt had passed me at one point but then appeared to be doing some sort of Auto Test just after T2.
MJ also vanished and Tony very kindly threw himself into the gravel at the last turn just as I caught him.
Oh, and Navin was last seen on his roof just after the last turn as well.
This put me in a podium position and that always makes me a tad wider when it comes to taking it off me, as Bullbars found out.
In the end, I think that the first time that he actually achieved a decent overlap at the turn-in point to T1 I gave him some room and he was through. Tony having watched things from a safe distance.
Matt pulled away to the tune of about 15 seconds before he pranged it and quit. However, whilst I was thinking that that was it, I suddenly realised that Tony was now catching me and what was more, he was bringing Stig with him!
At one point, Stig passed Tony and closed on me at a rate of knots! Thankfully I saw him bounce off the earth bank at the left hander after the Corkscrew.
Again I thought that I was safe and again I was wrong.
They came at me again and with four laps still to go I at last realised that my front right tyre was non-existent.
I tried changing down an extra gear in places to get some steering but could only just hang on in front of them.
With a lap to go Tony threw himself at me at the Corkscrew. I saw him coming and thought “There’s no way he’s going to make that work!” I left room for him and was just in the process of ducking past the back of his car when Stig hit.
We were trying to sort out the mess when John lapped us, making it the last lap.
Stig allowed me through and when we pulled onto the straight Tony did likewise. I was still trying to work out if Tony did in fact need to when I crossed the line and the race was over.
Thanks Tony, very generous.
For most of the race I felt like a mouse being played with by a whole set of cats.
Grats to John and Ade and WD to all finishers.