Well......by some good fortune on my part and a couple of errors by others, I had quite a profitable points haul last night
The Mini 970s which I had to use for the first race had proved a real headache for me. As I posted about a week ago I had managed a PB of around 55secs on my first offline trials. Normally, if I find some time to practice a car/track combo I would expect to make some improvement. But despite trying all sorts of setup changes, braking points, apex points etc I was just not improving.
The only thing that I knew for sure was that I could gain or lose 0.5 secs at the hairpin, and the only thing that I could identify was that avoiding excessive wheelspin in the Mini was crucial on corner exit?? With no option in the garage for this race I had to drive the Mini and knew that I would be up against a few experts....so I was not sure that I would be competitive.
The start went well and I found myself chasing a bunch of Escorts and Ziu in his lightening little Imp. Between me and the Escorts was another 970 Mini and hot on my tail was Tony in his 1275 version. Although Tony was in a different class I was not going to simply roll over and allow him a free pass, as I felt our speeds were not so different over a whole lap. Tony was quicker on the straights with his extra power, but was definitely quicker through the Esses before the hairpin and he made a run on the inside under braking for hairpin. Regrettably he was a little too bold and slithered into Oldgeezers (?) Mini ahead taking both of them onto the grass. I exited the hairpin 2 places better off and with a class lead !!!
A lap later my excitement got the better of me and I slithered wide at T1 allowing Rog to sweep past. I was able to recover before Tony and Bill caught me but it took a long tome to catch Rog who was driving a very steady ( and quick ) Mini. Our cars were so evenly matched on pace that I just could not find a space to make a pass....and Tony + Jeep had found an extra gear and were closing too quickly from behind!!
They tangled I think and gave me some breathing space just before Rog ran wide with about 2 laps to go and I stole his class lead. Tony was on a mission behind and I had to drive a defensive line for the last lap to hold my place.
Yes!! Ziu's phantom Imp was a shock just before the finish line and I just managed to dodge past
For the first time this season I actually thought about the second race... I had 2 Escorts left. The obvious choice would be to save the faster car for Brands Hatch. But a look at the available car table changed my mind. The majority of drivers only had an FVA left to drive so would have to use that option for Mallory, which would mean that they would not be competing in that class at Brands.....
So, I could take the faster 1600RS at Mallory and give myself a good shot at the class win in a faster car, leaving me with an FVA for Brands where there would not be so many cars in that class. Sneaky huh???
John ( Jeep ) did his best to spoil my cunning plan by matching my quali pace and snatching pole!! As per usual I had qualified on race fuel so knew that I could be on his pace for the race. Then he spluttered at the start and I was lucky enough to get the power down to lead into T1.
Pre race practice had taught me that my setup was very skittish on cold tyres and that I needed 2 laps to find any proper grip, especially on the rear end, so I had to tread very carefully and defend for the first part of the race.
Gradually the grip improved and I was able to squeeze away from John. Once I had a few seconds as a buffer it was simply a case of making no mistakes, which I almost failed to do by running wide at T1, throwing away 2 precious seconds. But a lap later, John lost time and I was 5 secs ahead again with a cruise to the flag.
