Like Erling said.....I thought that this was supposed to be a fun series??? lol.
But when that flag drops, and the red mist descends, any concept of just making up the numbers vanishes
I did a few laps along with Matt earlier in the evening to try out the connection and the cars.
Race 1 and my start was poor which placed me in a sandwich at T1. I was doing my best to avoid a car on my inside and Matt in his Cortina on my outside. the space was squeezed and I nudged Matt's rear end sending him and me into a spin.
Matt got away first and I was dead last
For about half of the race I was simply trying to catch the tail end of the field. Matt had caught Kurt and Bob at about the same time that I arrived to join the party. Then, at the approach to the chicane Matt developed a sudden interest in Botany and turned left instead of right, Kurt ran too deep into the chicane and Bob appeared to miss a gear on the exit of the chicane. In the space of a few hundred metres I gained 3 places
.
I could see Tony up 6 secs ahead and I was catching at about 1 sec a lap, but there were only 6 laps left
I just ran out of laps and Tony took the podium place, but it was fun chasing him down.
Race 2 and I swapped the Cortina for the Alpha and a few tweaks on the setup transformed the handling ( must remember what I did for future cars and races!!). Geoffers posted a better time on his one lap qualifier, but I was at least on the front row and Erling was surely too far back tp pose a threat ?? Should have known better
Donington is not exactly blessed with good passing places and following someone like Geoffers is not likely to throw up many opportunities. After a few laps of following him I was confident that my car was slightly quicker, but making that work for me was another issue. Then as he said he put a wheel too wide at Mcleans and found that green slippery stuff and squirreled across the track in front of me and I had to take to the grass to be sure of missing him. But I was not going to hang around and tried to make the most of the gift.
I was watching the gap back to a recovering Geoffers and initially I was concentrating on just maintaining the gap at around 6 secs. Then he dropped back behind Tony and Erling and I now had around 9 secs of lead and about 9 laps to go.
I blame the HUD for screwing my chance of the win. I was lapping in the mid to low 1:24's with a best of 1:24.12. Then it popped up a green minus 0.250 at the old hairpin, which meant that a 1:23 lap was a distinct possibility.... so I had to try for it didn't I??
Erling has described the result. I tried to force the power on through Redgates and the rear tyres called "enough" provoking a graceful spin onto the infield. The extra slippery Donington grass slowed my rejoin just enough to allow that "No threat Erling" to sweep past down the hill.
I was hoping to have a go at Erling into the chicane on the last lap and wanted a fast exit onto the straight, but he was slower than I expected on going into that crucial corner over the crest and "I hardly touched him guv, and like a professional footballer he dived onto the grass yer honour".
so I thought I should wait and let him retake the lead whilst I gritted my teeth. There was one last attempt by straight lining the chicane and taking a cut track warning, but I overdid that and those rear tyres were past their sell by date so Erling was left unmolested and took the flag.
Grats to both podiums and thanks for some allegedly "fun" racing Tony