Tough race, this one. Brands Hatch will never be one of my favorites; I'll be hard pressed to think of a corner I hate more than T1 here - don't think I'll ever truly gotten it right, in any car. Lola demanded full concentration and a rotten egg on the accelerator at all times.
Puzzled by the results table - it shows GT on pole and me on 4th, but if I'm not mistaken, he started from the back, Postal was on pole and I was 3rd
Anyway, slipped into 2nd when Postal spun at T1 on L1. GT soon made his way through, and he & Clive disappeared. Managed to stay ahead of the Alfa pack of Roger & Postal for a number of laps, but then Roger fell back a little, allowing Postal to concentrate on me instead. He was soon through, and I thus dropped to 4th.
Gap to Roger varied, but eventually seemed to stabilize around 6-7 secs. Surprisingly, Clive then showed up, not too far up ahead. Wondered if his tyres were off already, and if I might have a shot at passing him. Soon became apparent though, that he was playing his gap management game once more. Decided to ignore him and concentrate on Roger behind me instead - better hang on to 4th than screw up trying for a 3rd I wasn't going to get anyway.
However, Mr.Evil seemingly didn't like being ignored, and promptly dropped the gap to under 3 secs. I still didn't take the bait, so he extended the gap a little, but then pretended to spin in a corner. Okay, if he was THAT intent
, then maybe I should try and pressure him a little. Just as this was unfolding, GT caught and was about to lap me. Contemplating where I could let him past without losing too much time to Clive, distracted me enough to go off track. That of course let him through - and handed Clive another gap to manage! The kind track nazis decided I shouldn't be the only one getting nothing from my mistake, and thus handed me a cut track warning
Got another warning some laps later, when I ran ever so slightly wide when exiting the hairpin at T2 - apparently you get s-n-g's for losing time on this track.. Thus had to be very careful on the remaining 10 laps or so, so never got truly close to Clive again. Slid off under braking on the last lap, but thankfully rejoined soon enough to hang on to 4th till the finish.
Grats to the podium. Thoughts go to Bill though; hope his procedure has gone well, and that he'll soon be back among us.
Cheers,
Erling