I'd actually not been trying to win the Radical championship this season,
I'd always had my eye on the overall title and team title for Epicurie Banana. I had originally wanted to run the SR8 all season but the botched standing start at Laguna and the machine crash I had at Silverstone meant that I needed to be more competitive at Spa to acheive our aims and that meant taking the DP.
The obvious risk being that I was running an unfamiliar car as I'd not driven it for two seasons, the last time I ran it Brendan beat me at Brands. I was extremely lucky that the first setup I downloaded from the iRacing forum suited me for both low and high fuel with out any changes so that gave me time to just get used to the car.
Qually was a little nerve racking last night, with nine minutes gone I was last
but I settled down for one lap just behind Brendan and one just infront.
The race went well enough and I got a 4-5 second gap back to Brendan which was important because I didn't feel I could drive the DP well enough in a close fought battle with the limited practice I'd had with it. I pitted two or three laps in front of Brendan and didn't take tyres but I was now in uncharted waters as I had not run this long before. Brendan put up a spirited attack but it was stalemate between us until I hooked first just a little early and I had a half spin at the bus stop which fortunately did not put me off track and I was able to resume with a couple of seconds lead.
From my point of view I think Brendan was quicker through La Source, Eau Rouge and upto the entry to Les Combes and through Blanchimont but I was quicker through Les Combes, Pouhon etc up to Blanchimont and it felt like I was through the Bus Stop but its sometimes hard to tell. Whatever, Brendan is a fine race driver and I knew I was in a real fight. We finished with a couple of seconds between us.
Not a bad season for Epicurie Banana, overall, Radical and team championship with Paul putting in some great races too. Forza Banana.
Congrats to Brendan on the Riley championship especially with five wins in a row.
I've really enjoyed the racing, shame there were not more of us at times and as such I doubt its worth running the sportscars again with the new endurance format. Shame as the SR8 and the Riley are well matched, I can't agree with Dave that the SR8 was the faster car
, the Riley was quicker at four rounds, Spa (twice), Silverstone and Barber. The cars were equal at Brands and the SR8 was quicker at Laguna and Infineon in my view.
With Paul now in front of me I had to be very cautious on the opening laps. Knowing how different the top speeds and braking distances are between the two
cars I couldn't take any risks. I was forced to wait several laps for the right moment to pass
Hopefully you download the skins from trading paints Darren so at least you got to look at the new Epicurie Banana livery we've had done, I watched Paul over the line yesterday and thought it looked superb.
Regards
Gary