Apologies to Roo and Ronnie for T1, I stayed a little too wide to avoid a car that I had seen in my mirrors on the approach, and ended up scuffing around the barrier. I held my breath as I squeezed back between the polos and through the Esses, trying to keep it tight.
That compromised my exit and cars streamed past on the next short straight and I had to keep to the left. Just as I was lining up the next left, a Honda shot past and turned in for the apex. It was a bit of a shock and I could not avoid clipping Doni's (?) rear wheel and we both span out.
More cars went past and, quite frankly, I thought my race was over. From here on it would just be a case of trying to pass a few cars and have some fun.
I have posted lately that I do not practice for races these days and just turn up, grab a car/setup and use qually as the preparation for the race. I guess I am fortunate that I have a very good ( at least it suits me!!) setup for the BT11 at Mexico. It took me a few laps to settle into the braking points/downshifts and get the tyres up to temp etc. but I was soon on the pace.
My pace was good enough to catch and pass a few cars quite quickly and slowly I reeled in a 3 way battle ahead of me between Robert,Dean and Ronnie, with Axel just ahead of them in 2nd spot.
Robert was hustling his BT7 around the track at an impressive pace but slowly I reeled him in and after he made a small mistake I was on his tail and decided to wait for the main straight rather than push for a risky overtake. A simple slipstream pass in a more powerful car, and I was after Dean, who proved a little more difficult because he had more power available
.
Eventually I squeezed a pass and almost immediately caught Ronnie at T1 where he ran wide and I had passed 3 cars in about 3 laps, I was feeling pretty chuffed with things until I looked in my mirrors and saw that Dean had attached a tow rope. He was supposed to have allowed me to get away!!
For the next few laps I had to work hard through the twisty bits in order to build a big enough gap to defend against Dean at T1 where he was taking big chunks out of my lead on every lap. For lap after lap the gap opened by half a second and closed up again at T1 as we slowly pulled Axel back into view. But any thoughts of actually attacking Axel were on a back burner with Dean breathing down my neck!!
Dean re passed me at one point and I had to turn up the gas to 11 to regain 3rd and put in some serious laps until I think Dean made a small mistake and I was able to break the tow and get away.
I thought that my battle with Dean, had scuppered my chances of catching Axel in the remaining laps, but I was having fun....so why not give it a go
As the laps counted down Axel got closer and with 2 laps to go I was on his tail. I thought that a pass down the straight would be straightforward as we started the last lap using the slipstream, but Axel made a clever defensive move and took to the inside very early, forcing me to go around the outside at T1. He was quick enough to hold his position and we exited the Esses with Axel still ahead.
I did some serious head work in the next few seconds. The run from Peralta to the S/F line was not long enough to make a slipstream pass....so how was I going to steal 2nd spot from Axel ... I figured my only chance was on the run towards Peralta as I knew I was quick out of the Esses and might just slip through.
So I lined Axel up and absolutely nailed the gas as soon as I could as we took that bend. It almost went horribly wrong because my exit speed was so great, that to avoid rear ending Axel I had to take to the grass...but there was no way I was lifting off the gas!!! I I passed Axel and was so quick into Peralta that I ran slightly wider than I had intended, which left the door open on the inside for a counter attack.
As we swept off the banking towards the flag there was contact, but despite bouncing off the armco I was able to continue to the flag. It looks like Axel suffered some damage but still crossed the finish line.
Not sure what happend there Axel, and I still have not had time to watch a replay.....I'll let the mods decide on that one.
Grats to Tris on a dominant race, just wish I had not screwed up lap 1 and could have given him some competition....but then maybe my race would not have been quite so action packed.
As you might have guessed, I really enjoyed that race and it was nice to be "on the pace" without doing any offline practice. It does not happen very often these days, so I will take it when I can.