As Nappe said above, gearing in these low powered cars can make quite a difference....
I know Cadwell very well, cracking circuit to drive
, although the Mountain section is always a problem if I'm honest.
I had a setup from last year, and once I had played with the gearing I found that I could go low 41s consistently, with a best lap of 1.40.5 offline. Was relieved to be able to repeat that in quali, doesn't always happen!
Jumped off the line and away in first, Suti gave hard chase for the first 10 laps or so, before then falling back. He then must have had an error of some description as Dimitar was now 2nd. I knew I had the edge in raw pace, but Dimitar is so consistent that beating him in these longer races is a challenge of a different kind than just outright speed
. Felt really comfortable though, sat on a 15 second lead, but then span ridiculously into the mountain, costing me most of that lead
. Got going just in front of DD, and then just pulled away a little before the fuel was starting to run low into the pit stop window.
Saw that all of a sudden the gap to Dimitar was going up rapidly, but it did not say he was pitted in XD so wondered if he had gone off
. Went into the pits with a 50 second lead or so, and just took my time to get it all right as I thought I had a decent gap. However, when I exited, Dimitar was less than a second behind. This had me confused for a while, as I thought he must be stopping soon, but another couple of laps made me realise he must have pitted and it was just a problem with the display in XD for some reason
.
I still had just a little more pace, but the gap was much smaller at the end of the first stint in terms of laptime. In trying to push away from DD, I then span it on the way to the mountain again, and by the time I had recovered I was over 10 seconds behind
.
Now, to say I was annoyed with myself doesn't even get close. I had lead the race for over an hour by this point, and throwing that away in this fashion was enough to make me get a little hot under the collar. I spent the next lap fighting the red mist that threatened to wash over me
. However, I checked the clock, and calculated we still had around 50 minutes to run, time to get my skates on properly.....
It's the old conundrum of being easier to chase than lead. I found I was much better able to concentrate now that I had a target to aim at. The car was sweet, tires barely touched in terms of wear (no need to change them here for sure), and I was able to put some rhythm together. Dimitar responded initially to my speed, getting himself into back the 1.40s for a couple of laps. I had worked out that he was much quicker than me through the mountain section at the end of the lap, I think he must have been able to use 2nd gear vs me in 3rd, but I was faster in the fast corners in the first and second sectors of the lap and overall I was able to make more time there than he could in the mountain section in sector 3.
I was now doing fastest laps one after the other, and going quicker than I did in quali. Once I had got within range, and caught a little slipstream, I zoomed past, which again I took to mean our gearing was different. Was determined not to balls it up again, and so kept the speed high to push a gap, and keep concentration up. Ended up taking the win, first time for me in one of the enduros I think.....
I have one apology to make. Clive, I am so sorry for the contact, it looked like you were leaving the outside line for me to turn into the final bend with, so set up on the wide line, but then I think your car had a little wobble and the contact just could not be avoided. I was desperate to give you racing room, but it looked for all the world as though that was not the case there. the last thing I wanted to do was just send a big one of the inside and take you by surprise.....Was really narked at the fact you ended up off the road.
Nappe, was not a problem, certain sections of the track were tight even in these little cars.
Grats to all the finishers.