This has gone straight to my list of favorite tracks, at least for this kind of cars. Great choice Tony
Spent a lot of time preparing for this race. Although I've found the Shelby too twitchy in previous races, it handled beautifully here, and early testing suggested I could pretty much match my pace in the GTO, so sorely tempted by it. Later, when testing for tyre wear etc, I could not match my earlier pace in it. Had done some 1:54 laps before, but no matter what I did, I couldn't get under 1:55. Time to tweak the setup then, although that is by no means my forte. Did find the right buttons to press, so finally the laptimes dropped, allowing me to set 1:54s regularly, and eventually beat my best GTO lap of 1:54.2, with a 1:54.0. Shelby for the race then
Did feel a bit like an outsider in the race though, when seeing every one else's car choice
Managed my first sub 1:54s in pre race praccy and qualy, which put me 4th on the grid. Start didn't feel particularly good, but still got me past Tibernius and into 3rd. Was delighted to see Clive take the lead, since Matt and I were tied for points going into this race.
The two front runners quickly pulled away. Had Roger and Tibs in tow for the early laps. Had a small gap of 3-4 secs to them after a few laps, but this started dwindling, as Roger was on a mission. Hunkered down and got some fast laps in (well, fast for me), to restore the situation. Entered a phase where gaps in front and behind were slowly growing, so shaping up to be a lonely race from then on.
However, about halfways through, as I was about to lap Bill, I suddenly spotted Clive not far ahead. Cursed under my breath, as that obviously meant Matt had gotten away. After a few laps it became clear, that instead of doing his job of getting after Matt and win the bloody race, Mr. Evil was now content with teasing me with one of his - in Coyote circles now infamous - 5-sec gaps to the car behind. Really quite annoying to have him cruising up front, no doubt listening to Beach Boys on the radio and munching on snacks, while 5 secs behind, I'm driving like I bloody stole it, just to keep up...
Positions lasted to the end and I can't complain about 3rd, although Matt is now clearly in the lead
In retrospect, I should probably have worked with the GTO instead. Could probably have gotten a little faster with more practice, but doubt I could have matched Matt & Clive's blistering pace - the setup tweaks I did on the Shelby weren't relevant on the GTO, so that wouldn't have helped.
Cheers,
Erling
