Good fun at Laguna Seca.
I cannot explain why, but I decided over the weekend that this was the track where I would use the Mazda and I had to make it work or go crazy in the process. I almost went crazy!!!
That RX3 just did not want to be tamed and I spent more time watching the rear wheels try and overtake the front at each corner than I have with any other car in GTL.
Finally I developed a setup that allowed me some control and was feeling that I might be able to compete in this howling beast...then Jose posted about his 1:34 lap!! when all I had managed was a PB of 1:42. That was depressing
!!!
It was all Ok when we discovered that Jose's laptime was on a different version of the track ( phew!!!, ). But in qually for the 1st race the front rows were still 2 secs a lap quicker than I could squeeze out of the RX3.
TBH I screwed up the first race when I was too hot on the loud pedal out of T3 and lost the rear end
Later on lap 1 I lost out in a paint swapping contest and ended up stuffed into the wall and about 15 secs off the tail of the field. But the rest of the race was good as I adjusted my braking and turn in points and gradually got the Mazda back onto the tail of the race with some quick laps. It all went wrong when the engine coughed on the last lap and I ran out of fuel.
race 2
Add 2 extra gallons!! and give it the beans in qually. Still a couple of secs of the front row but I felt more comfortable with the package. Got a good start and stole a couple of places in the first few corners. I was determined to stay out of trouble and played it cool for the first few laps until I had some heat in the tyres. Then I turned up the wick and went hunting Porkers.
Postal was proving a difficult nut to crack and I dropped back for a lap to watch where he was quicker and slower, before jumping on his bootlid and shouting MAAAZZZDDDDAAA in his ears with that wonderful megaphone exhaust. It worked and the shock made him spin at T2
For the rest of the race I was trying to chase down misnomis in 2nd spot and got quite excited when I saw that Jose had made a mistake and I now had 1st and 2nd place cars in sight about 4 secs ahead. Although I could take tenths out of the lead I could not get close enough to challenge and backed off on the final lap just to be sure. that almost ended in disaster when I relaxed too much at the corkscrew and ran straight on!!
Luckily I had a big enough margin over Bill back in 4th to recover and cruise to the line, quite chuffed to have got 3rd in a car like the RX£ and to know that I DON@T HAVE TO DRIVE THAT BAG OF ******* ANY MORE!!
