Grats to Cookie, Tommie and Doni up on the podium.
I arrived late for qualifying and only had time for a single out lap and one qualifying time. That all fell apart when I got nerfed at the final corner on the out lap and there was no time for another attempt.
Started dead last and had to use binoculars to see the flag man
. This required a change of tactics, so I held back on the first few laps as various people made contact and dropped out. On more than one occassion I had to pick my way through stranded cars at various corners, but after 3 or 4 laps I was up from 17th place to about 10th without really trying.
Once I picked the pace up it became clear that I was running a little too much wing angle as I was gaining huge amounts of time through the corners but I needed a good tow truck on the straight. There were several laps running with Dean and Andreas who were both in the Mclaren flying tea trays. Their top speed was stunning down the long straight and all I could do was sit in the draft and back off to protect my engine.
But, I could make up plenty on braking and through the right hander to get back on their tails. Through turns 1,2,3 and 4 I was backing off to avoid rear ending them as they struggled for grip. Dean and Andreas both made mistakes and ran wide, but their top speed soon drew them back into the 3 way battle.
It was clear that I could not simply pass these two and outrun them. But with about 10 laps to go we were catching Francesco and I saw the chance of making a pass and still getting a tow. If I could pull a big enough gap, I might be able to keep myself out of reach of their top speed.
I pounced as Dean ran slightly wide at T2 and for the first time nailed the gas through the corner to get past Dean, I risked everything in getting onto the straight as fast as possible and getting the tow from Francesco. It almost went wrong when Fran backed off/braked for T1 and I had to wrench the wheel over and struggle to keep the car on track...but I survived and managed to get away from those 2 tea trays.
The rest of the race was a chase to catch Greg. I was reeling him in lap by lap, but I could tell that it was going to be very close on the last lap.
In the end it was my excess of wing that prevented me drafting past him on the run to the line and my extra 15 gallons of fuel that I had left in the tanks??!!
Grats Greg, just one small mistake would have gifted me that 4th place
Onc