Well, an eventful race, and given my asking for no pile-up in T1, I'm not happy to have gone wide there on lap 2 and caused a pile-up behind. Looking back, perhaps I should have waited longer to rejoin as I was off the racing line there. I thought it would be fine sticking to the outside, but perhaps the '3 infront' made us fall a cropper, as Rob was unsighted entering the corner, and he said a Lotus warped across screen (i.e. fell foul of 3 cars infront).
Q was tough, until the last lap, where I got the time for pole, when ideally I wanted to be practising a start and race fuel T1 braking. Alas, it did not matter when I saw it was 3x3.. gulp.
Start was OK, stayed right, and when I saw Greg close, started touching the grass/tyres.. and then I had a 40 yard lead; now I know Doni and Greg touched. So, I was disconcerted at the time and almost went too far for T1, but made it through on the outside line. Didn't push hard, and was slightly clear into Lap 2; braking on cold tyres at T1, I half span and returned again on the outside line. Ray was deep and stopped just infront, Miele on the inside and Greg in the middle.. as we exited, Attilio and Rob arrived and there was contact at the Apex. As I drove off, I was relieved to make it through, but sad for the contact behind - I was hoping the championship protagonists were still in the race.
So, all I had to do was re-pass and drive to the line. I managed the first, passing Miele at the second attempt (we were running two wide out of T1 at first, until I caught the grass on the right.. Hamilton/Rosberg stuff
) after Ray went off, but again lost focus in the lead, and span at the slow double right, bending the suspension. I rejoined and was slow away in second, losing more time as Rob passed in surprise. Re-passed Rob, and set off after Miele. Managed to push for a mid-18, gaining back on Miele, when the engine blew over the bump... spiking neutral from 5th gear. A shame, as I knew I had enough time to re-pass Miele and finally had some focus with the bent suspension.
But the sorry tale does not end there.. there were only 4 runners left now, after Doni and Rob went off in the sticky bits. I coasted my car as far as I could go, not knowing if I had made the 50% distance for points scoring. I came to a stop before the last corner, pulling off to the left. I noted down my new first sector pb and let GPL retire me. I knew Greg, Attilio and Miele had passed by but did not see Greg pass by once more as I was pulled from the car. So after checking out the start and the various happenings in the replay, I came to see the live standings, and to my dismay that Greg had retired. Back to replay to see how this happened.. and to my horror Greg had missed his braking point passing my car for the second time, just as it was pulled from the track
. And now I find out I'm one corner short of points.. my dislike of 50% for points is rising..
I actually drove a strict 50%, with the three sectors of the mid-distance lap, even if my engine blew before S2....
That left two drivers in the race... and then Miele's engine blew, although Attilio said he almost collided with Miele, after spinning off. Imagine if we had no finishers... Grats Attilio and everyone who fini... err, made half-distance... OK, the podium or championship protagonists!
PS. I can understand the gridding... most tracks by now have a good grid set.. so amongst the many things to do for the Mods, the grid is probably not one of the things that is remembered. But it seems totally opposite to the 50% rule, as some cars were taken out at the start. I'll look for the feedback thread..
