This was a very enjoyable evening's racing; wish Lawrence could have been there with us.
These tracks are just crazy, but in a very exhilarating way. In offline practice, I found the Merc to be the most stable jumper (or lander
), so had to be it for race 2. The Aston is my favorite of this trio, so wanted it for race 1, although it's probably the most difficult to drive. Some tweaks to the setup lessened its tendency to go out of control whenever the rear wheels left the ground.
Race 1:Got lucky in qual, with a clear lap. Very surprised, but of course delighted to find myself on pole. Had problems getting the Aston off the line, as it would bog down in first when you dropped the clutch, even at close to max revs. Thus Flash shot ahead, but lost momentum under the archway, allowing me to get back in front. He was my close shadow over the following laps, until a small gap developed. Flash got replaced by Jose later in the race, but the gap was never more than around 5 secs, so couldn't afford mistakes - and had to keep pushing till the end. Very chuffed with winning this one - and in my favorite of the cars too
Grats to Jose and Bob on the other two podium places.
Race 2:Here Jose was back in his usual place on pole. I made a poor start, losing another place to a Jag. I got an awkward line into T2/3 and thus got a bit wobbly. Got a bump from behind that send me onto the grass and - I thought - down to the bottom of the field. I thought the car that hit me had moved on. Only when I looked at the replay, did I realise that the consequences were more severe for it than me. Owe Bob a huge apology for this
Very sorry about that; had I known at the time, I would have waited for you. It looked like you were doing well in these races, so I'd be happy to swap finishing position with you.
Blissfully ignorant about the above, I set about chasing the field. Made up places when other drivers made mistakes. Had a good scrap with Kurt over a few laps, until he got a little out of shape at the bridge, allowing me past. Later passed Tony, when he had a moment, and was up to 3rd. Later on the same lap, I stuffed it myself. Drifted too close to the wall, when exiting under the archway, hit it and spun the car. Could almost hear Tony laughing when he passed me..
Couldn't prevent Flash from catching and passing me too, but now started a great duel between the 3 of us. We swapped places repeatedly, but eventually both Tony and Flash suffered bigger problems than me at the jump, so a gap was formed. Had about 18-19 secs to Hayman in 2nd, but no chance of catching him. Very chuffed with 3rd though, except for the incident with Bob
Grats to Jose and Hayman, and commiserations to Clive and all who suffered severe problems during the races.
Cheers,
Erling
