Best overtake was down that last straight, saw Erling and Clive roaring up behind me l stayed as near middle of track as I could and both roared pass, one each side. Welldriven guys
!
LOL Bill. It would be great to say that I demonstrated impeccable driving and judgement in performing that overtake, but.........the truth is not quite so flattering.
I had nailed the gas out of the hairpin intent on passing Erling before the final turn. The red mist was so dense that I could only focus on the Healey's tail lights. Then suddenly he moved left, just as I was going to pass, to reveal ANOTHER CAR!! dead centre of the road. No chance of stopping, so I aimed for the only bit of unoccupied tarmac which appeared far too narrow to accommodate a Merc. So I drew on all my sim racing experience and closed my eyes. There was no "bang" and when I peeked again the road ahead was clear down to the final turn and Bill was still moving and in my mirrors.
Erling was close to the truth about my performance
words like inept, appalling and plain dumb are hardly apt.
A week suffering that most deadly disease, man flu!! with no sim racing had left me decidedly "rusty", I did not even fire up my PC during that time, relying solely on my ancient lap top to watch the forums.
Sunday evening I felt strong enough to try a few laps as I reported earlier, but struggled with the Merc. Monday evening I tried a few laps with the Healey, which was a joy to drive compared to the Merc....but with the setup I had was about 1.5secs slower.
As I had 2 Mercs left I decided to work on the setup, so I joined the server early and did some testing.
There was a "eureka" moment when a change of damper settings took me below 1:30 for the first time on what felt like a slow lap.
When the next laps were trimming 3-4 tenths off I decided that 1:29.2 was good enough on race fuel and saved that setup, whilst I tried a few other tweaks.
It all looked very promising until Ati and Jose flexed their alien muscles and whacked in 1:28's!!!!
So I had to reduce the fuel to a couple of laps and go "banzai", just to see if I could match that pace. I got closer, but still 0.5 secs off Ati and only just in front of Jose in a Healey!! ( great time Jose
)
Well 2nd on the grid was OK and for the first time ever in GTL I managed to use the clutch properly and launch off the grid without wheelspin...Woohoo! into 1st place before T1.
At this point I should like to pass on a little acquired wisdom to my fellow drivers. If you have used your left foot on the
clutch pedal when you left the grid, be sure to place it over the
brake pedal before T1!!
I didn't!
So when I jumped on ( what I thought was ) the brakes to cement my lead position 100mtrs from T1, nothing happened!!! I just avoided the trees and scenery and trundled back onto the track in about 200th place........................bu**er!
The rest of my race was impaired by some very thick red mist
and given that it was so thick I am amazed that no-one else was affected!!
My Achilles heel in GTL is still braking, and it caught me out far too often as Erling witnessed on far too many occassions as my Merc ploughed on at various corners.
Despite all of these issues, I did enjoy the race and having discovered a half decent setup for the Merc at last, all I need to do now is learn how to drive it properly!!!!
Grats to Ati, Jose and Geoffers for stunning pace up front, not sure that I can live with that yet, maybe in a couple of years??
