Very hard but entertaining race last night.
By the time Geoffers & DD announced going with Ferrari or Jag, I had settled on the big Cobra. Not particularly embarrassed by sticking with my choice, since both gents have used it themselves, with quite convincing results! Was the hardest to drive but also the fastest of those available to me.
Initially times in praccy looked promising, but when the alien brigade from dTR showed up, I expected pole & podium to be out of reach. Thus surprised to snatch the former. Getting the Cobra optimally off the line is tricky; seems the line between bogging down or melting the rear tyres is razor sharp. Thus lost the lead to byAGM at the start, and as I had to brake early on cold tyres at the end of the straight, Dan slipped past too. He graciously gave me back the position next lap - uncalled for, but thanks nonetheless.
Gradually reeled in byAGR over a number of laps, and finally got a sufficiently good exit from a corner, to be ahead when the next arrived. Held the lead to late in the race, but with very few exceptions, the gap was always under 1 sec. Knew keeping the lead till the finish would be unlikely, being at a disadvantage tyres wise as I was; the Cobra eats them even faster than the TVR. At the halfway point, the left front was in tatters, and the other 3 weren't exactly pristine. Only got worse with more laps, and with about 5 laps left, I got a bad entry & exit to the corner after the straight, giving byAGR the chance to go past. Couldn't keep up on my melted tyres, but would have finished a little closer, if not for spinning the car before the final corner, after more or less deliberately overdoing the final hairpin.
Grats to byAGR for the win & thanks for a fair race, and grats to
DD Shaggy? for 3rd.
Interesting to see the race from byAGR's perspective on their Ballesta Racing YouTube channel - wish I had paid more attention in the Spanish lessons back in high school (and could remember a little more of it...)