Grats to Uli and all finishers and a great run by Paul V in the BRM
I have just watched the replay of the start, it was not a pretty thing to watch!
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Ziu was very unlucky to have his engine fail on the grid, but that is part of the GPL software which tries to reproduce the poor reliability of the 1967 cars. In my experience that type of failure hits me in 2 or 3 races in a short time span and then I have no problems for about a year?? Maybe it corrects my driving, or I am more aware of what revs I am using...I don't know.
Ziu's slow car forced those behind to all move across to the right hand side, which would have been OK as there is plenty of track available with the pit lane area available too. BUT! Tris also chose that moment to try and push more power through his rear tyres than the laws of (GPL) physics allow and speared his car across in front of the slowly moving Ziu. Again that would have been OK, leaving 80% of the track clear. Regrettably Tris's Ferrari decided to bounce back directly across the path of the cars now committed to the pit lane escape route.
I could see what was coming from my Honda and tried to predict where Tris would end up, but I got it wrong and could not stop in time to avoid a hard contact. I thought that at the very least my car would be damaged or dead and when someone else hit me from behind and launched me spinning into the night sky, I was ready to hit "ESC" and go and watch TV.
The Honda landed almost facing in the right direction so I tried a little gas and it moved...it also steered around some wreckage.. and accelerated in a straight line!!??
I held my breath at the first braking point expecting big problems, but nothing happened and the car felt fine??? I was very careful for the first 2 laps just to be sure that the car was working OK. If Ziu was unlucky, I had a miraculous escape !!!
When things settled down, Andreas was just in front in his trusty Cooper and I was amazed to catch a glimpse of Uli and Bastian in their Ferraris only a few seconds ahead
as I had no idea how many cars had been totalled in the start line carnage. I could see the 3 podium places ahead of me, which was far better than I could have hoped.
I suspect that Bastian was battling with Uli and defending, which was slowing them both enough so that with some slipstreaming Andreas and myself could close the gap slightly. Then we came across Uli recovering from a spin and the game changed.
The Ferrari is really fast on that long straight and pulls maybe 10mph more than either the Cooper or the Honda ( even though the Honda has the biggest BHP?? ). So when Uli swept past us on the straight both Andreas and myself were able to get a huge tow...which was great as it dragged us towards Bastian...but I had to back off as my revs were going over 11K and the oil temp was climbing very fast towards the 235F danger zone!!
Bastian was reeled in, but by that time I think his engine was damaged and even when Uli had drawn clear up ahead he could not catch the Cooper and Honda.
By now it was clear that unless Uli had a problem the race was between Andreas and myself for the lower podium places and if neither made a mistake it would all be decided on the last lap. So I tried a few moves to see where I might make a last lap attack The slipstream advantage of the car behind made things very difficult as passing too soon left the chance for a counter attack, but leave it too late and it might not be possible to squeeze past?
On the last lap I had decided that my move would come on the final run to the line, where I appeared to have just slightly better gearing and acceleration than Andreas.
As the saying goes "the best laid plans of mice and men...".
I was gearing myself up for my move as we exited Indianoplis and accelerated towards the Esses where I knew that I had to stay close. It was then that Andreas made his only big mistake in the race
and put a wheel on the grass. I had to take the opportunity to get past even though it meant that he could try the move that I had been planning in the race to the flag.
It was very close, 0.2 secs after such a long race but the Honda had just enough grunt to hold on to 2nd place.
With so many Ferraris out of the race early I finished much higher than I had any right to expect, but the biggest surprise was that the Honda appeared undamaged after the start and was a joy to drive.
Commiserations to those whose race was over before it began and to those who suffered damage struggled. GPL is cruel at times.