That was a cracking race from start to finish, a proper endurance event even though it felt like an 80 minute sprint for me with all that close no-prisoners racing action
Got in late from a tasty Tapas restaurant (ironically !) and had to hit the ground running during qually. First few laps were well off the pace (about 2 secs slower than my PBs) and despite creeping into the 36's was down in a lowly 14th.
I was 0.6 up on one of my last flying laps and got stuck behind a blinking Z4 in the final 2 corners and cost me all my hard earned 10ths
The low qually slot put me a little out of place pace wise on the grid as i knew i had my Race setup honed well to run in low-mid 36's.
That put me in the middle of a fierce battle from the green lights with Matts Viper ahead and Profs Z4/Jans Fezza behind me. Had some great battles with Matt first off though some slightly rough chopping nearly ended in disaster and then cost me a slot to one of the guys behind as i once more had to slam on the anchors to avoid contact
, still, no harm done.
From then on it was a battle royale with Profs z4 and Jans F430 as the 3 of us had one hell of a ding dong for about 30-40 minutes with no let up whatsoever
We swapped places several times and ran side by side or bumper to bumper for lap after lap. Great clean racing action gents
I seemed quicker than Profs Z4 around a lap as was all over him until we reached the straights, then his Z4 would just blast away and leave me standing
which meant for lap after lap i couldnt get by him. Eventually him and Jan touched, dropping Jan back and then Prof pitted later and i set about trying to get some quick laps in to create a breathing space...it seemed to work a treat
My tyres held out really well as i had the car well balanced tyre wear wise and i kept an eye out for the weather changing before i decided to pit. I came in whilst running 3rd or 4th? with half hour to go, as others up front had pitted before me, put soft fronts on and set about doing my fastest laps of the race with my lower fuel load.
With 10 mins to go i started to worry about my remaining fuel and began short-shifting as i had built up a 17 second lead over the 4th place guy behind me (API) and was about 20 odd secs behind 2nd, so just had to keep it clean and cruise as much as possible.
I really started to panic when i saw JPS pull over onto the verge out of fuel as i knew he had used my setup (or similar) and then my mouth went dry as i crossed the line only to find i still had one more lap to go
Thankfully the short-shifting worked and i was very pleased with myself to cross the line with a measly 3 litres left
Very chuffed to bag a podium, i felt like i drove a proper enduro, quick when i needed to be, cautious when required, no mistakes and added to a dose of racing luck with Lazlow having to make another stop, got the 3rd place
Another great legends result with TT 2nd and my 3rd
Congrats also to H@L for his fine win and everyone else for great close, clean racing, not easy on this tight undulating track.
The GTC class should make a great championship.