I blame the weekend of alcohol and lack of sleep!!
I arrived home early evening, sat in the armchair and promptly fell asleep for about an hour, waking just in time to have a quick bite of food and a long drink ( non-alcoholic!!).
almost 9:00pm .
So I fired up my magic lantern and discovered ...no server??? A visit to the chatroom found all the usual suspects milling around looking for a spare server, which Paul produced from his top hat along with a rabbit and a bunch of flowers.
Which car??? well I used the Brab last time so why not??? The gearing was too low and I spent several trips out of the pits testing different ratios until I was reasonably comfortable. Then I looked at what times were being set and saw that Ronnie was really on a mission!!!
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I was getting within 1-2 secs on ( what I thought would be) race fuel but Natan and Samb were threatening the front places too and I did not fancy being too far back if Rocket Ronnie was going to take off into the distance when the race started.
I reduced the fuel load by 50% and changed a few lines through corners and suddenly I was very close to Ronnies time, but each time I lit up the first sector and was on course to take pole... I caught traffic
at just the wrong point and lost time. No-one's fault that is how the cookie crumbles in qually. But I squeezed over the S/F line just before the end of Q and got a clean lap right at the end which took pole and put me in the place that Ronnie did not want where you cannot see the flag!!!! Doh!!!!
I had to refuel, get myself set to look right at the flagman and be ready to drop the clutch and switch to straight ahead view ... last night was not a good night for such complicated multi-tasking!! and I was a little slow getting away.
The rocketman lived up to his name and amazed me as he swept past into the first left hander and again maintained that speed through the right hander towards the first real right hander...how is he so quick I thought?
A little less impressive but more re-assuring was his slide off the circuit under braking
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I regained the lead with the ever threatening Samb on my gearbox, which would mean that I would be an easy target once we reached the S/F straight at the end of the lap. So some banzai driving on cold tyres and heavy fuel was required. I did just enough to gain a safe gap at the end of the lap.
From then on I just manged to ease away from Samb and Natan ( and I think I saw Dean flash up on prib?).
Everything was working fine and I was slowly stretching the cushion back to Samb until I glanced at the fuel level at half distance
At this rate I was going to be 2 laps short of fuel!! 2 options.........a) make a Shift/R and SnG, but I did not have a big enough cushion to get out in the lead again. or b) short shift and drop the pace to squeeze out the fuel???, but 2 laps extra??? could it be done.
I dropped my pace by about 2 secs a lap and stayed 1 gear higher through almost every corner. Every few laps I did the mental maths and it was getting close...very close!!!! With 5 laps to go the fuel pressure started to drop, with 3 laps to go I had less than 20psi and 0.5galls left.
Then Ronnie loomed onto prib and started hunting me down. More maths and at this speed I might just make the flag if the fuel holds out.........I start the last lap with 0.1 galls and 6psi and Ronnie closing fast but maybe not quite fast enough??
The engine was coughing and spluttering but we were still going...only the final chicane and corner and the short run to the flag..................but it all went quiet
Rats Ronnie swept past!!! Shift-R and a blast to the line ahead of Dean, but with the 15 sec penalty I will probably lose that.