Intense, but resultwise disappointing race for me.
Qual was unusual, in that my first timed lap was a new pb. Think it's the first time that's happened in all my GTL racing. Improved it again later in qual, but disappointingly far off the pace and down in 5th.
Start went well - at least I had a working rev counter this time, as opposed to my first Chappy drive. Gained a place when Clive bogged down, but given his blistering pole time, it only meant I would have to deal with him when he recovered. Sure enough, after a couple of laps he was on my tail. He seemed to have bags more grip than me through corners and under braking. While I found the magic formula for the 350 Lola, I haven't been able to do the same with the other cars, Chappy included, but more setup work obviously needed. After Clive's endless griping about his inabilities with high power, high grip cars, I found it amusing that suddenly it's he who's teaching the rest of us how to corner in such one
Kept Clive at bay for most of the first half. During this we closed in on the lead group. Can't say whether it was Clive pressing me to go faster, or whether the leading trio had slowed, but we definitely reeled them in. That was shortly before I eventually put the left wheels on the gravel, allowing Clive to get past finally. He's one of the drivers I'm supremely confident won't run me off track (notice the subtle pressure I've cleverly put on you for potential future duels
), and thus I'm less inclined to hand out freebees when racing him. Had I know he would go on to win the race, I should have let him past much sooner, as he stole points from John, who's my fiercest competitor for 2nd spot in the Championship.
Couple laps after Clive had gone past, I regained 4th when Geoffers spun off. Spent the remaining laps hunting down an uncharacteristically slow Ziu. Wondered if his arm was troubling him, which he has confirmed; sorry to hear that! Caught him just as the race ended, so once again too little too late; would have been nice with a couple more laps to try and get past.
Grats to Clive on win, pole & fastest lap. You do realize you've beaten our resident alien on all accounts, and even if he's injured, that's no mean feat!!
Grats also to John for 2nd and being so close to 1st. Grats & commiserations to Ziu for 3rd and the arm problems.
Cheers,
Erling
