Strangely this was also the first time I had ever raced at Zolder, although the track has been around for quite a while.
I did a few laps of practice on Saturday and soon discovered that none of my Honda setups suited this track. I concentrated on getting a working setup with race fuel, which proved to be the right decision as Art, Joe and Bob blitzed qualification with some stunning times.
I had hoped that a steady drive and natural attrition might gain me a few places and when Art chose to investigate the gravel at T2 and one or two other cars opted for scenic routes, I felt that things could work out.
But, Art recovered and hassled me in his much quicker Fez, until I ran wide and he went through and eased away. I was still running quite well and pressed on trying to maintain a reasonable pace.....there were still a lot of laps to go and plenty of opportunity for retirements
Suddenly Art was in sight and he appeared to be travelling more slowly than he had been, so I upped my pace slightly to try and catch him. Bad move!! I cooked the rear tyres and managed a 360 degree spin which allowed Art off the hook
It was about then that I did my customary fuel check at around half distance only to discover that at my current pace I would not make it to the flag!!....RATS!!! So the rest of the race was done slightly short shifting until the last 3 laps when it looked extremely marginal
so I cruised the last few laps and crossed the line with only 25psi of fuel pressure.
I was nowhere near the pace of Joe, Bob and co . In fact by the end of the race I was nowhere near anyone's pace except my own and barely that!!?
Grats to Joe on his record in 67's, he seems to have found the "groove".