WOOOHOOO!!! My first UKGPL podium! But I'm under no illusion that it was anything but luck that got me home to P3.
Grats to Joe for putting on a clinic up front. Lead all the way to score a fine victory.
Grats to Al for nailing down a most-worthy P2 and being in the hunt for all 36 laps.
When I joined the server, I checked the entry list to see whom was driving what. As each entry popped into view, it was like Clive mentioned above: A sea of Brabhams.
Like a FoS for BT24's.
I must confess to wimping out in both qualifying and the race as I tackled many corners in 3rd gear when I know that I can changedown to 2nd. More pace is possible in doing that but as I've found, it's not long before the Skid Demon claims me. Better safe than sorry, I reasoned. The torque modelled into the Repco V-8 is available over such a broad power band that you can get away with that strategy.
I took P6 on the grid just behind Raoni. When the flag dropped, Ra didn't get a very good launch and I had a decent shot to slip by on his left and end up diving into T1 in P5. Hmmm... That made for Brabhams holding down the top five slots. FoS indeed!
L3 and with things fairly static, I came out of the chute with Triple A arcing into 5A just a handful of lengths in front of me. Suddenly, I saw the back end of his BT24 breakaway and he spun off into the barrier. I had just enough time to slow and cut a low line to avoid possible trouble. Raoni, directly behind me, cottoned to this and followed me safely through. Bart wasn't so lucky. Just a few seconds behind Ra, he skated up wide through 5A and drilled Arf's parked car, nose-to-nose. AAA was done on the spot and Bart could only manage a few more metres before retiring with a dud engine. Scratch two Bt24's.
Raoni was an ever-present menace just off my tail and Al was just barely in sight about four seconds up the road in P3. L6 and the tiniest placement error had Ra just catch the grass verge on the left for the entry to T3 and he spun off. This left me clear to concentrate on getting down good laps and see if I could close on Al. Joe and Bob were not that far up ahead either. L8 and disaster for Bob. I came down the chute to find a smoking, flaming wreck parked on the entrance to 5A. As Bob explained above, it all went wrong in T4 and he was comprehensively carved up by the Armco on the right verge. I can tell you that my eyeballs were out on stalks at the sight of this. I slowed right down and tip-toed around the remains. Bad luck, Bob.
This left me in P3 with Al about four to five seconds up the road in P2. Things were going well in that at least I wasn't losing time to Al and even closed a bit here and there. Til half-distance, L18.
I'd just lapped Tilio down in the hairpin...he kindly let me through without delay to the point that he ran right off the track in doing so!...and ripped up the back straight now just 2-1/2 seconds behind Al. As I crested the yump, I saw that I was slightly misplaced. Further, the car wavered slightly as I attempted to slow and I had to relax my braking. I could see some three to four seconds before even leaving the road that I was done like dinner. Nothing to do but hang on and hope the impact wouldn't cause major damage. Off onto the grass and bing!, a ricochet off the fence. As luck would have it, I was facing the wrong direction entirely and it took some time to get swapped about. I knew that the Repco would more than likely give me fits trying to negotiate the grass so I quickly up-shifted to 2nd gear to reduce the torque input. That seemed to work well and I got back onto the tarmac after dropping a bunch of time. Raoni, long-since recovered from his earlier off, sifted by before I could regain the track to take over P3. Tilio, following me up the back straight, had a sympathy spin with me and went off in T8 as well!
All this put me down about four seconds to Ra. I knew I'd have a tough time catching him let along passing him. In this last 1/2 of the race, my driving became ever scruffier. On L28, I made a complete nonsense of my exit to hairpin at 5B and spun off. Lucky to have ended up facing up-track. Dropped about eight seconds in that gaffe to leave Raoni free and clear of any threat. From this point on, I decided to settle for P4 and just stroke it home.
Mon Dieu! What's this? On the very last lap, I was just nicely up onto the back straight when I caught a flagger displaying the white flag. Just caught sight of it at the last instant. I lifted a bit to see what the trouble was and was astonished to flash by a red car on the right verge. Ra? Nah, couldn't be. I crossed the S/F line and holy smokes, my pitguy flashed me P3! It WAS Raoni! In post-race chat, Ra revealed that the motor had blown sky-high coming out of the hairpin. How cruel! If the motor could have lasted another 10 seconds or so, he may have had enough momentum to free-wheel it in over the line for that P3.
Good to be back with the UKGPL after a two year absence.