Mine was a race of two halves. My '67 races usually turn out to be a battle with rubber components, as much as racing opponents. So during pre-race practice, I'd honed a track specific setup, to try to conquer the omni-present problem of overheating tyres. And once I'd discovered how to survive 5 laps, instead of 2, before reaching meltdown, I knew I was in with a chance.
A perfect start put me at the head of the pack, heading into the first long right-hander. And while chaos ensued behind me, I burned rubber - no, wait . . . that part comes later! There was a major conflagration involving more than half the field, and it's amazing more lives weren't in need of resetting, before things were sorted. All of this gave me a good jump, and I worked hard, to increase the gap back to a pursuing Ross, during the first half of the race.
By mid-distance, I'd eeked out a 10 second lead, while trying to avoid that noise. But I could tell, my tyres were all set to sizzle. Until a couple of lurid slides, had them tumbling over the cliff, and landing as a sitting duck! Umm . . . or something similar to get shot of, before it lays an egg!
Racing on ice is not to be recommended, unless you're fitted with spiked tyres. Eagle eyed Ross soon swooped in, and glided off to an easy win. While I still had a 30 second lead on Hendy in 3rd. The problem being, my wounded machine had become 3 seconds a lap slower, without it's tread. While on the plus side, this enabled me to battle with a car I'd lapped, a few laps earlier!
By the final lap, Hendy was on my tail. I'd been struggling around the first corner for several laps, with the car bottoming out, unexpectedly. And this time, pushing hard, my luck came unstuck and my tail snapped around, which turned the Coop. into a handy roadblock, which Hendy had to stop for. Sadly, I ended up facing the wrong way, and trailed home in third.
Fun race, fair outcome. Well done to the podium boys, and that includes my tyres!