UKGTL Season 16 F1 1967 - Monza - Oct 10

[Erling G-P]

Quite humiliating actually - he's never driven the Ferrari before, cobbles together a makeshift setup in the 11th hour, and while I beat him in qual, he thrashed me in the race.  Guess that's the difference between alien and mere mortal..

To be honest Erling the Ferrari was dead easy to drive compared to the BRM I started with, far more grip & much better brakes. It was just a case of altering the brake bias, a couple more notches on the rear rebound & sorting tyre pressures & gearing. More time with the BRM would have got it fairly competitive but default setup is all over the place, nearly undriveable.

Although I have got faster over the years, I am far from alien. There are guys who no longer race GTL who were streets ahead of me. JohnW over at NG beats me every time & in certain cars you are far faster than me as is Ziu.

Yes you are right Geoffers, you are far from aliens because aliens are beheind you light years......and i m right when i say that you are an ace 

I concur 

Jokes aside; I'm not sure it makes me feel better if you're not alien - that only means I'm even more inept at driving the darn Ferrari I've been in for most of the series.. 

Cheers,
Erling

[Erling G-P]

Quite humiliating actually - he's never driven the Ferrari before, cobbles together a makeshift setup in the 11th hour, and while I beat him in qual, he thrashed me in the race.  Guess that's the difference between alien and mere mortal..

To be honest Erling the Ferrari was dead easy to drive compared to the BRM I started with, far more grip & much better brakes. It was just a case of altering the brake bias, a couple more notches on the rear rebound & sorting tyre pressures & gearing. More time with the BRM would have got it fairly competitive but default setup is all over the place, nearly undriveable.

Although I have got faster over the years, I am far from alien. There are guys who no longer race GTL who were streets ahead of me. JohnW over at NG beats me every time & in certain cars you are far faster than me as is Ziu.

Yes you are right Geoffers, you are far from aliens because aliens are beheind you light years......and i m right when i say that you are an ace 

I concur 

Jokes aside; I'm not sure it makes me feel better if you're not alien - that only means I'm even more inept at driving the darn Ferrari I've been in for most of the series.. 

Cheers,
Erling

[Jeep]

Well, if ever my late arrival and hence my low rating in the championship was going to pay dividends today was that day.

Surely I had a chance of a victory at Monza in the Eagle?

Wait!. What the hell was Franky doing in the Cooper T81B on pole. Sheesh, The realisation of where I was in the food chain hit home at that point. Qualified 4th behind all the usual suspects but with the bonus of Geoffers surprisingly some way behind.

Got a blistering start, If you have ever seen me trying to haul a GPL 67 car off the line you will appreciate my surprise when I got the jump on all in front of me and headed down to Curve Grand in 1st place. Actually pulled out a short gap for the 1st few laps before the whine of Ziu's Ferrari became a reminder that I was actually in a race. By lap 3 he was all over me and I think our differing set up's were causing him some headaches, I am very much a slow in fast out kind a guy but Ziu was fast in, Fast during and fast out and a few times He got a lot larger in my mirrors than I think either of us was comfortable with. In short it was obvious I was holding him up any time a corner was thrown into the equation. At the end of lap 3 I ran a little wide at the parabolica and he was through with me right on his gearbox. The superior speed of the Eagle made regaining the position on the run down to Curve Grand a formality and I was back in the lead but (Obviously ) it wasn't to last and finally at the end of lap 7 he re passed me and this time made it stick. Tried to stay with him but was also aware that the Erling/Geoffers battle was also something I couldn't ignore as they were alao within spitting distance of my coveted 2nd place. A few time Geoffers came very close and had he been on a different line to me might well have squeezed through but I managed to stay ahead while also trying to keep Ziu honest. Then I saw both Erling and Geoffers tumbling down the order. I assumed they had a coming together but later found Geoffers had hit the invisible object on the inside of Curve Grand unfortunately taking Erling with him. I had hit it also during practice so gave it a wide berth during the race.

This put me some way ahead of 3rd and gave me chance to plot my attack on Ziu but in fact I ended up just sitting there appreciating his skill. I got about as close as I could by Lesmo 1 but through the Lesmo's, Ascari and the Parabolica he just pulled away. I did my best to keep him honest in the vain hope that he might make some mistake I could pounce on but he slowly extended his lead and by the end I was about 3.5 seconds adrift.

Thoroughly enjoyed it though really glad to keep it on the black stuff for the whole race. Really Congrats to Ziu, Having had the chance to watch you drive as one of the chasing pack all I can say is very well done, I had a lot more straight line speed than you at Monza but still your car control through the corners was 2nd to none. I am not worthy....

Congrats to Tony for the remaining podium spot. I guess I need to put the Eagle in the garage and work out hoe to rive one of the other beasts before the next race.

TTFN
John.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Nice race report John