Sorry for the late report, gents. Seems that only Thursday evenings I'm free to catch up on a lot of things.
Grats to Juha for a fine victory! Great job...but some bad luck, too...by Mark to score P2. A fine run by Clive to make it a Ford sweep of the top three. Well done all.
I got in a good solo lap in my P4 but could kick myself in the butt for not going out to try and get a tow so I could start closer to the Fords. I just knew that they'd fly and I wanted to try and tag along.
On the first flying lap, I was surprised and delighted to be able to gun down Al's Mirage on the home straight and gain a slot going into T1. Comes T2 and I really blow it coming within an ace of losing the Ferrari in a tank-slapper. I managed to just save the slides and saw Al lining me up for T3 and yielded.
On the back straight, both Al and I whistled by Thom's Lola but I'm afraid that I let my obstinance win out over sense and pushed it way too deep into Thillios. Both Al and I rocketed off and had to take the escape road. Luckily, I recovered and took off after Fulvio's Lola. I was surprised to push by easily on the pit straight and pick up P7. At Muzon, lining up just behind Tim's Lola, I saw Fulvio roaring up like the wind on my inside. I braked hard and early thinking that, surely, he was not going to make the corner and go streaming across my bow at speed. Judging by what I saw from Tim, he saw it coming, too. He braked hard and early as well and delayed his corner turn-in. Fulvio did, indeed, go blasting by both of us, all crossed up and on his way to the haybales. Bad luck, FP. Pretty headsup driving from Tim considering how far back Fulvio was.
Cookie blew up on the back straight and we all jumped a slot but I thought that at this early phase, there was every chance that we'd be hearing from him again later on. Truer words were never spoken!
I hooked up with Tim and Thom along the back straight but then got a shock when Al came blistering in on braking for Thillios and just blew past me with ease. Clearly, I was being to cautious on the brakes. L4 and from P7, I had Tim, Thom and Al directly ahead with Dave not far behind and having a fine race. Disaster at Muzon! Thom got loose on throttle and collected Al in a spin. I squirted through to follow Tim with Dave making it as well.
Coming up to finish L4 and Tim had the Lola motor go South despite babying it. Bad luck, TM.
This left me in P4 with a long, long way to go but out of the hunt with the Fords long gone. Dave was stickying to me like glue and I couldn't shake him. For a couple of laps, I just drove the line but then started to weave in hopes of breaking the slight tow he was receiving. It took many, many laps but I finally broke free. All the while, Cookie was making inroads.
On L17, I got the news from the pitgy. Cookie next behind and by only about six seconds. Here we go! Evil was just out of reach about nine seconds up the road. The cost of that L2 off was now becoming apparent.
It was ineviatble that Axel was going to gun me down and on L20, he surged by for P4 on the way to Thillois. Dave had tagged along with Cookie and wasn't far behind either til a late-race off set him back.
In fact, I was rather hoping that Axel would tow me along and we could get a shot at Clive but no, time ran out. On the last lap, I got a nice pass through Muzon to follow Axel closely along the back straight. It was my last chance to shine so decided to make a bit of a go of it on the run into Thillois. I pulled out of Cookie's slipstream as we braked for Thillois and moved right. So did he. A little waver under braking, apparently. I couldn't avoid the big Mk2 and we collided. From my view and in my replay cap, Axel's car burst into flames and spun across my bow. I recovered first and took off for the S/F line just up the road. HUH? My V-12 was just puttering along. Seemed way down on power. Axel got going again to just...and only just...pip me at the line. I would have been lucky in the first place to get by Cookie so it all ended fairly in the end.
This may have been my Swan Song for Team Green in the S22GT series. While I've made every race thus far, our season closer is on May 06. This just happens to be the season-opening club race at Mosport. Of course, I love the clubbies and am keen to go and it's only about a 1-1/2 hour drive. Also, under new ownership, I understand that millions have been sunk into the facility in the last few months. I'm keen to see.
It may come down to a coin toss.
