After the disappointment of race 1 I was not feeling confident about Race 2.
I managed to re join just as Practice was ending and made a decision to change cars, only because I wondered if my disco was "car related?".
Figuring that I was unlikely to stay connected for the whole race, I decided to sacrifice one of those ruddy Minis and get it out of the way
.
I managed to survive Quali without a disco, but failed to get a good lap in, although that was not bothering me.
I have been struggling with the Minis ever since I joined GTL, seemingly unable to master the driving style. So with little expectation of even surviving or completing this race I was perhaps a little more "relaxed" about protecting the engine and tyres.
"EUREKA!!!" I had accidentally discovered where I was going wrong
I was throwing that little 970S Mini at corners with barely a lift on the gas, with that warning light on the dash almost permanently alight. It was quickly obvious that I had been far too careful with these minis previously!!!
After surviving the first 2+ laps, I was beginning to wonder if I might actually manage to stay on the server to the end of this race.
I was amazed to be catching and passing bigger cars and gaining more confidence in the handling as each lap passed.
I had a great chase with Tony in his 1275 Mini ( although I did not know that at the time). After he dropped back Rog reeled me in in an Escort, but again I had no idea what I was giving away in engine size. So I just thrashed that poor little car and held him off for a few laps until he went past with just 2 laps to go! I was able to just hang on to his tail pipes, but it was very clear that he had more grunt on the straights, and I could not regain the place before the flag.
I ended the race in a Mini with a smile on my face for the very first time, after some great battles (with what it transpired were bigger engined cars). An even bigger surprise was that only Erling had opted for a group A car, so I was second in class ( I was also the LAST car in my class too, but we won't dwell on that!) and looking at the results above I also managed a 1:52 lap at some point, not too bad at all
................. so what had started as a no-hope race ended on a more positive note.
Still perplexed by the repeated discos in Race 1 and cannot see quite what might be causing it. I am actually beginning to wonder if Windows XP is not seeing GTL as "active" and is going into standby mode. At least that would explain the predicatble time element? But why that should happen with some cars and not others is a mystery, or maybe it has nothing to do with the various cars??!
