Grats to Tristan for another win. I was quite happy with my quali time, although in hindsight had I got in front of Arf I might not have ended up last at the end of Lap 1 !!!
but that is racing as we know it on GPL.
I knew that I had good race pace in the Eaglet and a very stable handling car that should have allowed me to push Tris all the way. But my 3rd place on grid, and a dodgy start allowed Ronnie to squeeze past and dropped me to 4th.
On race fuel I could immediately see where I was quicker than the 2 cars between myself and TB, the problem was I could also see where I suffered on the main straight lol !. I was just beginning to plan where I would pick off Ron and then Arf around the twisty bits as we went down the straight on the 1st lap and entered the braking zone ... . It was at this point that plans were forcibly revised, when Arf ran wide and squirted back onto the track clipping Ronnie and effectively giving me so many targets that I could not miss them!!! The contact left me facing the wrong way on the inside grass and I had to wait for the whole field to pass before getting under way...
. By this time Tristan was out of sight by a good half a lap!!
I rejoined behind Arf and we chased after the pack and passed a few cars as we worked our way back towards the front.
As long as we were making good progress I was happy for Arf to make the pace and found that I could easily close up the gap to Arf whenever I was momentarily held up behind cars that we passed. Eventually we got up to about 5th and 6th places and I decided that I needed to pass Arf and chase after the podium spots.....so I started applying pressure.
A couple of times I got alongside but had to yield the place back to Arf. I hope I always gave you enough room Arf, as I was enjoying a great battle.
Eventually I got the corner onto the straight absolutely nailed and was on his gearbox and in the draft. I already knew that I could brake later than him for that right hander and pushed deep down the outside, only to see Arf fly past me as I applied max anchorage
.......but he missed the corner and ran wide as I majestically swept underneath him and was away.
Ronnie and Andreas were ahead ( with Tris miles in front!) and a podium spot beckoned. A few laps of running in clear air proved that I was closing fast on the 2 cars I had a chance of catching. Andreas was first and after I had got 3rd spot my sights were set on Ronnie. The gap came down steadily and soon I was looking to get into his slipstream and make a challenge.
I used the draft and stuck it down the inside at the end of the straight to steal 2nd place, but I knew I would have to build a gap before we got around to the straight again or Ronnie would return the favour!!
However he vanished after about another half lap with a broken engine and I was able to cruise to the flag in 2nd spot protecting the engine.
My fastest lap was only 0.02 secs slower than Tris, so if I had escaped the lap 1 incident I might have been able to give him something to worry about. But things did not work out that way and instead I had a great time chasing back through the field.
The warp from my point of view was VERY bad at times and in the early laps I actually backed out of any moves because cars ahead were leaping from side to side and up and down. Some even clearly drove way off the track and vanished, only to re appear 25 mtrs ahead some 3-4 secs later, so powering out of corners was extremely risky??!!
