Grats to Evil on what must be a most satisfying victory! Well done. SHE was pleased.
Great job by Juha to score a fine P2 in the Mirage despite a mid-race incident. Ahem...ahem...
Kinda lucky to score a P3 here in the Ferrari as I had some offs, incidents with contact with just about every Ford out there and a blown engine from which to recover. To net a podium after all that was most surprising.
I hadn’t the slightest notion of entering the Ferrari. I practiced with the Mk4 and was reasonably pleased to post a 36.90 in those trials, only about two seconds off my 330/P4 PB. When I joined iGOR and punched up the event, I was dismayed to see that just about everyone was driving a Ford of some description and several Mk4's for sure. I did some quick mental calculations and figured that with my pitstop handicap, I’d be just about even over the full distance with anything I could do with the Ford and the Ferrari was likely to be less of a handful over 35 laps. So...
Pleased if lucky to snatch pole position even if a full second off my PB in the car. Starting P1 was a real godsend in that it let me attempt a breakaway to build up a cushion for the mandatory pitstop. Was the pace lap satisfactory, gents?
Off the start, I got away into the lead and pulled away nominally from Cookie’s Chaparral. Soon, Evil was by to snatch P2 and closing in rapidly on me. In my haste to load the Ferrari, I’d neglected to change my pitboard.srb and was still using the dedicated example for the Ford Mk4. I have specific srb’s for each car that enables me to read the board without blockage of view from the GT car fenders/mirrors. The result of this was that the bottom line of the board was obscured and I couldn’t see for the balance of the race just whom was behind me at anytime. Only after switching over to the F10 chase view was I able to determine for a certainty that it was, indeed, my team leader, Clive the Evil, whom was chasing me. Coming off Stirling’s on L6, I throttled back and let the little Porsche thru for the lead. HER cars running P1 & P2. Can’t be bad!
Less than a lap later, I’m back in the lead! Evil has gone off in the devilish South Bank corner and put me right back up front with a substantial cushion. Clive at least managed to recover just in time to keep Axel’s 2D Chaparral at bay.
Coming up to finish L15, I had a nice four-second advantage on Evil when he decided to make his handicap stop. Ditto for Axel. This promoted Juha to P2 but he was almost 30 seconds in arrears. Looking good! Yes, until part-way thru L16 when my V-12 engine puked up a few valves. Groan... It took me a few seconds to realize that the engine was junk and I finally pulled over for a reset just the other side of South Bank. Going again, I dropped into the pits for my S&G at the end of the lap. That near-on 30 second gap back to Juha in P2 had all but vanished. He was now hot on my tail and proving most anxious to pass. I was due for my handicap stop shortly so punched up, ‘PIT IN’, on this lap. Preparing to dive into the pitlane at the end of the lap, I realize now that my better option was to let Juha pass coming off Stirling’s rather than lead down to Clearways. As I rounded the corner and aimed for pitlane, I eased up on the throttle slightly and Juha, doubtless taken by surprise at this, tagged me and we both went into wild spins. I’ll plead guilty on this and take responsibility for not exercising caution. Apologies to Juha. At least we were both able to recover and resume.
I served my stop noting the time with a stopwatch I had strung around my neck. In my last-minute decision to run the Ferrari, I had not configured GPLWait properly and feared a massive cockup in the pits so yanked out the watch from a nearby desk drawer at the last moment. I stumbled badly in grasping the watch but finally managed to activate it. Observing the server replay later, it seems I was stationary for something like 66 seconds, well over my required time.
Mobile once more, I exited the pits in P9 to start L18, just behind Sky’s GT40. My missions was clear. Run like hell and try to climb the leader board as best I can. A unintentional and lamentable mission also surfaced: Clear the track of every FoMoCo product that came into my crosshairs. First victim was Sky. Blasting down Pilgrim’s Drop, I positioned to pass on Sky’s right and completely fluffed the maneuver. Instead of clearing his RR corner cleanly, I piled into him heavily. I was astonished to see that despite the healthy knerf, Sky held the car extremely well and it seemed to barely upset the GT40. My Ferrari, too, seemed hardly bothered at all by it and I scooted by going low into Hawthorn. PHEW! Close one. Little did I know that much more was to come.
Fester was next on my hit list and I caught him on L20. He was going very well indeed in his GT40 and as Steve is an old mate from way back, I didn’t have the heart to shunt him off. Instead, I let him off with a warning and glided by without contact.
Next in my sights was Sam in the Ford Mk4 model. I closed in rapidly but Sam is wily and I figured not to just breeze by without having to work a bit. L21 and coming off Bottom Bend and gassing it for the dash over to South Bank, I fully expected Sam to run to the right of centre of track on the setup for BB. I intended to duck to the left and go low into BB and snatch P6. Unfortunately, not having run laps behind Sam to make book on him, it would seem that in my observing several laps of the server replay cap that he doesn’t take this corner as I do and runs low in the entry with the car sliding wide mid-corner and then tucking it down for the exit. I committed to that low pass and before I realized it, was closing in way too fast on the Mk4. POW! We’re both off with Sam getting the worst of it by far. I dropped about six to seven seconds. Sam about 10. So sorry, Sam. Made a complete balls up of that.
Once back on track, I carried on to try and chase down next man, King in the Mirage, running P5. This was going to be a tall order as he was fully 18 seconds up the road. Not much chance of catching him with only a dozen or so laps to run. Still, you gotta try.
L23 and something of a break. Good for me. Bad for Axel. On L22, from a solid P3, he’d clipped the markers on the inside of Paddock and spun. The stoutness of these little critters was enough turn the handling of his Chaparral into junk forcing a reset later in the lap and the required pit-side Stop-n-Go at the end of the lap. Back up to speed but now with a full load of fuel and cold tires, his speed was seriously compromised. I was able to finish L23 just seven seconds down to him. Hmmm...
L24 and the gap was down to just two seconds. Cookie’s condition and traffic was playing into my hands. Til I came across Jason, that is. From about three lengths behind JB and in approaching Westfield, the big Ford swung in high and wide. I tucked low to the kerb and looked to pass if Jason stayed up there. From what I can make out from the replay cap, the Ford slid and pivoted off the nose to tighten up its arc. From being well to the left of the centre of the roadway, his Mk4 pinched down towards the middle of the road closing off my path. I slowed but not enough to avoid a collision. In what has to be one of the more remarkable shunts caught on tape, Jason’s Ford flipped into the berm then, incredibly, righted itself to continue.
To say the least, spectacular! Surely, this one will make the highlight reel at the end of the season.
I dropped about five seconds in that adventure but I wasn’t thru with Jason just yet. The very next lap and in closing again on his big Ford, he went in too deep at Druids and skated high and wide again. In fact, he came within an ace of dropping off the road and spinning altogether. I tucked my P4 down to the kerb...or at least tried to hold the car low...and as I was arcing thru, the sliding Ford caught a bite and came back down to the middle of the track. Collision #2 with Jason. He went off into the berm and luckily, this contact only cost me a handful of tenths.
Carrying on in P5, I started L27 about six seconds down to Axel. It needs to be mentioned about here that Hristo had the misfortune of a slight mis-step on L25 in the compression of Dingle Dell to fall off the road and go over the berm while riding in a solid P2. As he’d already had a reset(three, actually, by my count), he was done for the day. Bad luck. This promoted me to P5.
L28 and a phenomenally unlucky turn of events for King Hiro in a solid P3 five seconds up the road from Cookie. A slide into Druids left him facing the berm with little option but to jockey his Mirage about til he could get it facing down track. The cost was two positions with Cookie and I moving up. Axel almost collected the Mirage and half-spun in avoidance with a significant loss of his advantage over me. From being a comfy seven seconds up on me at the start of the lap, the gap was now down to just two. It’s on for the podium!
Over the next several laps, I just gradually closed in on the Chaparral without getting too hyper. I felt that there was enough time to get into position to challenge in the very last laps. Comes L32 and I’m only down about 1/3 of a second. Three laps to go. I just know that I’m going to have to be on my best as I’m perfectly aware that the Chaparral is no slouch of a car and Cookie no pushover. Mon Dieu! Approaching Clearways on L32, I’m part dismayed/part delighted to see Axel’s Chaparral drift off onto the grass verge and slow. A blown engine. Groan... No justice there after a fine and deserving drive. Cookie would sink to a lowly P11.
Free and clear now with Juha miles up the road and Hiro some 20 seconds behind in P4, I just cruised in for the last several laps to a reasonably satisfying P3.
Some others had some notable drives. Fester worked wonders in the GT40 with a terrific P5 finish. Super job, Steve! Sam nailed down P6 but it might have been P5 if I hadn’t punted him off the road at mid-distance. Sorry again, SB. Sky and Sergio did creditable jobs in their GT40's. JonnyO showed the value of persistence in scooping P8 and Nigel endured the Mk4 to claim P10. Pity that we lost Al so early in his Mk4.
