Well, if you had seen my initial attempts at taming this beast around Spa a few weeks ago you would have run for the hills. I couldn't get the thing under 4 minutes and complete a lap without visiting the scenery. I was taking the Merc at 1 point as I thought it would be the only way I could be certain of a finish. Slowly I educated my right foot and the lap times began to come down.
Qualified in 3rd with a 3:45.7 just under 2 1/10ths behind Geoffers (Who I was convinced had somehow shoehorned the Mazza lump into his Aston) and just under a 1/10th behind Erling in the other Mazza. Got a good start and jumped Erling into Eau Rouge and set off after Geoffers but he had enough of a gap by the Masta straight that I couldn't make up the gap before Stavalot meanwhile Erling was making up for his poor start and by Blanchimont was looking for a way past, I held him off but both him and Clive were right up my chuff through lap 2. Onto Lap 3 and I made my 1st mistake when I overshot at Les Combes running very wide and gifting Erling 2nd place and putting Clive right on my tail. Couldn't stay with Erling's pace and slowly lost ground but equally pulled out a fair gap back to Clive who managed to reel me in at certain points but I was able to use the power of the Mazza to good effect in others.
The Gap to Erling was about 7s with Geoffers a further 6s up the road when at the end of Lap 8 "I think" both pitted and I inherited the lead which I kept for a another 2 laps until I made my stop. One day I'll get one of these right. Came in nice and slow eyes riveted to the rev counter and being very careful not to earn myself a S&G. Found my pit man but Bill? was in the next stall and it wasn't clear to me as I approached if I had to go around him or pull in behind so lost a few seconds crawling up to my spot. I had done a few full race simulations and knew that although my lap times would suffer around 2.5s per lap later in the race I would just go for fuel. Unfortunately due to finger trouble my pit crew took no notice of my desires and changed the tyres anyway.
This made for a longer stop than I had hoped and I finally left the pits in 4th spot behind Geoffers, Clive and Erling. Clive pitted a few laps later and I noticed the gap to Erling was coming down at quite a rate each lap. Perhaps my pit crew knew more than I did and new boots were the right choice. Just need to push a little harder and I might be a real threat to Erling by the final lap.
Unfortunately my Ambition outweighed my Talent and a few costly mistakes meant I was still a long way short of troubling Erling at the end.
But overall I was really pleased to have bought it home with nothing more than a few scratches to be paintwork.
Congrats to Geoffers on the win and Erling for 2nd and the championship.
Well done Bob for 2nd in the championship. As the race unfolded I knew I had to beat Erling and rely on Clive to pass you if I was to have any chance of taking your 2nd place in the championship.
Thanks for Tony for organising this series, It's been my favourite of the year. I really hope we get chance to run these again in the future.
TTFN
John.
