Congrats to Dave R., the winner, and to Maddog for bringing home second place. I was mentally exhausted after that! I did not have a very good qualifying lap, and started near the back. I actually think that starting in the back helped me stay focused, and I avoided making too many mistakes. However, I did make two or three small mistakes.
I slowed down too early for turn one, lap one and I was given a bump for it.
No harm was done. I hope that the other person does
not receive a penalty for it. I followed a long train of cars for most of lap one. I was behind Dave C when he disappeared. Sorry to see you go.
Then I followed RogUK for a while. I think that he let me past on the inside. I was a little too excited afterwards, and I messed up the next corner.
I had a few cars behind me as well. Most notably, Johnny was glued to my bumper for the first couple of laps. I'm sorry that Johnny had to wreck his car to avoid my car. What I mean is that Rog, Johnny and I were driving down the straight together. I thought that Johnny might use the draft to overtake me at the end of the straight. I thought that I better lift so that I could give Johnny the inside line. Then he tried to pull in behind me at the exit of the corner, but I was going slower than normal. I watched the replay, and it was definitely my mistake. It is too bad that it ended that way because I wanted to see our battle continue for the rest of the race.
And my last battle in the race was with Bad Blood for a third place finish. I was able to sneak past on the outside of some downhill left hand corner. It was really tense for a few corners afterwards, but then I could relax. It was really amazing that the car drove as good as it did considering it took a few wallops.
Good race all, I look forward to the next one, I hope that the non-finishers have better luck next time out.
- Walter