As I was supposed to be working all night some 80 miles from home when this race was scheduled, I did not even bother to try any of the cars that were allocated. So, imagine my suprise at 7:30 p.m. when at the very last moment the work was postponed for 24 hrs.
I had an 80 mile drive home, arriving with 10 mins to spare before qually started...just time to say "hello" to the wife and the dogs ( in that order seemed safest!!) before running through the shower and turning on the computer.
When I joined you guys at Mexico, I decided that the Lotus BRM was the only car that I had used before with a single outing at Rouen, so that would have to be car and setup sorted!!
I spent qually trying to get one whole lap completed and adjusting the gear ratios so that they might just make the car usable.
As Hristo and Tim say, this Lotus just does not want to turn in at corners and needs to be bullied into a turn.
I expected to be at the back of the grid and just play it safe, hoping to pick up a few spots through retirements etc. In fact with the way the car was handling I had no great expectations of even finishing the race myself!!
Off the grid a couple of cars bogged down in front and I was able to sneak up the inside to T1 where I was ultra ultra careful to hold a smooth line around the inside with my tail happy beast. Once through the T2 esses things strung out and we ran up to the hairpin.
I did not save the replay, so I am not sure what happened, but suddenly I had a great view of the Mexican sky..then the armco..then the sky.. and finally the circuit again. I dropped the clutch and pulled away from whatever carnage there was expecting somethiong ugly in the handling department, but remarkably everything seemed solid
The next few laps I had Fulvio doing his invisible act, as he vanished from Prib for half a lap before suddenly appearing about 2 secs behind again..I guess he had connection problems as he later disco'd .
Once Fulvio had disco'd, the race was quite lonely with occasional glimpses of Tim at the hairpin, but I was never confident enough in the handling to push hard and try and close the gap to less than about 5 secs.
With one or two retirements I finished in 4th place!!! after a very steady plod around Mexico with a car and setup that was truly "evil"
Hopefully SHE will be pleased