Grats to the podium guys and thanks to all for a great fun race on a classic circuit.
I could write another post bemoaning my bad luck and inept pit crew after such a promising start to the race.
I had tried the 4 options available and, in my hands at least, there was a difficult decision to be made.
The Aston Martin did not feel fast, but the laptimes told a different story. The Healey was by far the easiest to drive but I could not match the Aston's times, The Fezza was a joy to drive and very smooth, but again not quite as quick as the Aston in my hands ( Ziu proved otherwise ). The Merc was solid and safe but just felt a little slow for me at this track.
The Aston would turn in very fast laps, but if pushed hard simply devoured the rubber
. So come race time I had to make a decision.... speed won the day and the Aston was rolled out. I tried to tweak the setup to protect the tyres and some adjustments to the diff and castor angle certainly helped dduring practice and quali.
I had expected the usual suspects to be on the front rows in whatever cars they had selected. Ziu was there, but Geoffers and Erling were playing games perhaps?? the start was a little more physical than I had expected after Tony's Steward Briefing pre race. Dan made his usual lightening start and Erling appeared keen to muscle his way past too. So it was "elbows out" at T1and I was glad of the grunt the Aston Martin had under the bonnet as I punched out of T1 to get onto Ziu's tail. This track is difficult to make a pass despite feeling quite fast and open, so I was keen to be at the front and not embroiled in midfield battles.
Ziu was quick and getting past him would be risky so early in the race, so I was quite content to sit behind him and let him set the pace. I was surprised how quickly we eased away from the pack and I had no intention of pushing for a pass, unless Ziu made a big mistake, until after the pitstops.
I was momentarily distracted by HUD and my tyre wear, plus the fuel consumption when I should have been focused on the braking and apex points. The contact with the barriers was not that heavy, but the violent reaction of my car seemed a little excessive and I landed facing the wrong way and in the wrong place!! I had to wait to spin the car around and get going, and lost any positional advantage, My tyres were already showing signs of stress and now I was faced with pushing harder than I wanted to.
I was gaining ground and places despite the poor tyres and feeling quite pleased with myself
until.... At this point I would like to claim the trophy for the most innovative and effective accidental pitstop for this season.
Climbing the hill up to the S/F straight was normally taken flat in 4th gear and I saw no reason to change that as I chased down yet another car ( not sure who it was?). But this was where the rear tyres finally cried " enough!!". As the Start line came into view I was at max attack in 4th gear and planning a dive down the inside at T1. Approx 50 mtrs from the pit entry the rear end broke away and turned the car towards the pit entry at around 140mph!! I could not correct the slide, BUT I made it into the pitlane AND avoided a speeding penalty.. Yeah !! work that one out guys
. We will gloss over the fact that this pitstop was 2 laps earlier than the script said that I should stop, and totally screwed my race later on, but having been propelled into the pitlane I had no choice but to change tyres and filling with gas. I cannot wait to watch the replay and see what actually happened...I might be able to replicate this high speed approach in future races
The cold new tyres almost caught me out as I returned to the track but I was now at the back of the field but everyone else still had to stop. Slowly my name moved up the leaderboard and when Fulvio pulled out of the pits I was on his tail and looking to get 3rd place back so I pushed hard for a lap and finally squeezed the pass. But, the early pitstop had left me very marginal on fuel and I was having to short shift and take corners one gear higher than I wanted. This did not help the rear tyres which were now looking very sorry as the torque of the Aston was spinning the outside tyre at each corner.
With 3 laps to go Fulvio was all over my tail and I just could not push any harder if I wanted to get to the flag. Fulvio made his move as we started up the hill towards the S/F line and I just could not hold the inside line. The rear gave up the fight and I spun into Fulvio..yes there was contact Fulvio..but it was my fault not yours
.
I just had to stop for a splash of fuel with a lap to go and that allowed Erling and Fulvio to get away.
Edit: just looked at the table and I appear to be shown as a lap down?? Don't recall being lapped Tony, but I have not looked at the replay yet.
