Grats to GT on an (almost) 100% record and taking the title and to Erling for winning this race and taking 2nd.
Thanks to Tony for organising all of this and to the rest of you guys for putting up with me.
It was not until Tony raised the issue at the weekend that I became aware of how close the competition for bronze was going to be. I could have opted for another drive in the Alfa, which was my favourite car thus far in this group. But I figured that I really needed to try out the other options and see how they performed.
So, over the weekend I did a few laps around Kyalami ( same track that GPL uses
) in the screamin' demon that is the Matra. At that point my PB was around 1:20 on race fuel.
I guessed that it would not be amongst the front runners, but I was looking for a race setup not qualifying. I did not get another chance to "play" until arriving on the server last night, where it was apparent that I was 3 secs off the pace.
A few tweaks to the diff and cambers improved the handling and I started to shave off time even on race fuel. I had soft fronts and hard rears and they seemed to holding up quite well even under extreme provocation
.
4th on the grid was a bonus and I actually thought I had jumped the start when I launched through the gap between GT and Postal and had to lift to avoid the fat a** of a large Porker that was blocking the way.
The same gearbox and rear axle were an obstruction all around lap 1 and I was constantly lifting or braking to avoid assisting Erling into the boondocks
Some eager beaver also tried adjusting my rear camber at the hairpin
and I think they might have succeeded in re-arranging some of the suspension parts as the car never felt quite so stable after that, but that is racing
It was only when we got to the main straight that the grunt of the big porker gave Erling a small gap, which I set about closing up around the twisty bits of lap 2.
Things were looking quite good until the end of lap 2 when I took too long a look in the mirror at the end of the straight and drifted a wheel onto the grass just when I needed to brake
.
Hero to Zero!!! about sums up what happened next, as I sat on the grass waving at all the cars passing me.
The rest of the race was good fun throwing that Matra at the corners and trying to hit the rev limiter in each gear
Strangely at half distance the fuel looked to be about right and I stopped checking. But I now realise that in the last 20 laps or so I was really pushing as hard as I dared on wearing tyres trying to close the gap to the 2 cars ahead. I suspect that I started using more fuel and eventually it coughed with 3 laps to go and I had to dive off the track to get out of Tony's way when it all went quiet.
I guess that the Alfa might have been more competitive, but the Matra was certainly fun to throw about last night. I doubt that I could stand that howl from the engine for a longer race as my ears were ringing by the end.
Looking forward to next season with you guys.
