Sorry to hear about your concentration problems Clive; hope it's not because of something serious.
Two great but tough races for me. New pb in race 1 qual, but not good for more than 4th. Good starts from Roger & Tony saw them swoop past, helped by me having to navigate around a tyre burning, but hardly moving Clive. Some slipstreaming and better straightline speed saw me past Roger down the straight. Repeated the move on Tony a lap later, putting me in 3rd. Matt was a fair bit further up the road, and being faster in qual, it seemed unlikely I could catch him. Few laps later however, he clipped one of the reinforced concrete tyres in the slow righthander, spinning his car 360º. That closed the gap considerably. A few more laps of hard chase put me in position to pass him down the straight, courtesy of the GTO's better straightline speed. Lost the position promptly again, when he went much faster through T1 (everyone did, it seemed, so I had to learn fast). Repeated the move on the straight, and then went faster in T1. That put me on the line Matt had taken when he passed me, so prevented him from doing it again. Rest of the race was an intense chase; I would gain a little on the straight, and Matt would claw most back on most laps through the twisty parts. Grats to Geoffers on the win & Matt on 3rd.
Race 2:
Massive improvement of my pb in qual, but still VERY surprised to find I had stolen pole from under Clive's nose
Hadn't had time to practice starting, so predictably lost a place when Clive grabbed the lead as the flag dropped. Only just managed to slam the door in Geoffers' face at T1. First half of the race was an intense chase of Clive, with Geoffers looming in the background, no more than about 3 secs away at most. Then Clive had his moment at the esses, giving me a bump as I went past. Sent me off track, and I had to thread my way back very carefully between the unyielding tyres. It meant Geoffers sailed past into the lead. "Bugger bugger bugger; even when he isn't outright fastest, Lady Luck still smiles on him, making sure he wins anyway!!" That was my thoughts as I started the hard chase. Got as close as 0.7 sec, but was never in a position to make a move - we were very evenly matched over the next many laps. But then the fickle Lady Luck suddenly turned her back on Geoffers, when he got a bit out of shape in the esses, hitting one of those car killing tyres. Put his car into a spectacular pirouette, and I held my breath going past, hoping not to get caught up in that meat grinder. Sorry about that Geoff; obviously wanted to beat you, but had preferred a different way
Had a 10-sec gap to the car behind, so eased off a little over the final laps, to avoid throwing it all away unnecessarily. Grats to Matt & Roger, and commiserations to Geoffers & Clive, and the other retirees.