I was really enjoying Imalayk. It has a really nice flow in reverse - I even found myself reducing front downforce for this direction Vs my race setup for going forwards!
In fact looking at my lap times from here and back in season 28 (when I drove a P126 forwards) the track is actually faster in reverse
(My setup was just the one from S28 with the cambers reversed and 1 click less front wing)
Gareth made me work like anything with his pace in qually - once I dropped my race fuel and went into qualifying mode I couldn't find anyone to draft so didn't get the chance to pip him to pole.
To make it worse I only joined the grid at the last second
again as I'm too used to the 2 minute wait at the start of AC races....
I then managed to fluff the start slightly (no idea how I didn't get a 'pit in' penalty, as the car started rolling just before the flag dropped) - maybe the steward took pity on my bogging down too much and getting jumped by Axel.
Axel was then kind enough to spin and return 2nd spot to me, which allowed me to press on hard on cold tires to re-close the gap to Gareth. One advantage of a high downforce setup in these cars is that driving on cold tires is much easier than it is for people on less wing.
Gareth wasn't quite able to put his power down in the first few laps which let me get right on his tail entering the main straight - luckily the draft allowed me to sneak up into the breaking zone and dive down the inside. I need to watch the replay to see what Gareth did as I was surprised he didn't hang on outside for longer and make me work for it.
After that about half the race race was spent trying to maximise corner speed to eek out a gap before the mighty DFV monstered back up behind me on the S/F straight - this alternated with getting pestered, nibbled and pawed by the dog who chose tonight to be bored and cuddly and didn't like my ignoring her
Gareth finally fell off and let me sneak away enough to get out of drafting range with 10 or 15 to go - I foolishly eased off a little at first thinking that should slow him a bit but if anything he obviously saw red as he immediately started to eat away at my lead.
Through ringing the neck of my BRM I managed to get home just under 4 seconds ahead - after his spin Gareth had been 7 or 8 back which makes me question whether I could have held onto my lead if he had remained behind throughout!
Brilliant race all, congrats to Gareth and Sam on the podium spots and to all other finishers, thanks to the back-markers for driving conscientiously, and commiserations to the retirees.