I would just like to thank Evil for the delightful Lancia setup that I used for this race. Once I had removed his daft 6:1 steering ratio it came into its own!
I had no idea that Fulvio was in the SL until the very last minutes of qually. I knew that I was going to have a problem getting to the end of the first long straight in first spot. But it was a long race so no need to panic. I thought that his brakes must surely give out at some point!
I didn't know what car Bastian was in as he seemed to spend all of qually stuck in the revolving door on the way into the circuit!
Sure enough, after the start we set off down the long curved "straight" to Ostkurve and Fulvio motored past. I couldn't duck into his slipstream because there was a yellow thing stuck to his rear end.
I had done the MercSL v Lancia thing before so I knew what to expect. When I watched the replay I thought what a wonderful sight was presented by the tightly bunched field heading towards the stadium. They were so tightly bunched that I realised that they don't all have the same miserable looking bloke driving them and they don't all look quite so miserable as Fulvio's virtual self either. The Ferrari and Lancia teams seemed to have cloned a rough looking individual too.
Anyway, we all took turns to have a go at getting past Fulvio. Evil's first attempt almost ended in disaster when he suddenly found himself closing on the back of the SL at a faster rate than his brakes could do anything about! He did the decent thing and threw himself on the grass, just managing not to clout Fulvio on the exit of the right-hander.
I think that it may have been the following lap, when I could now see that Bastian was in the open wheeled Merc, and that he had managed to claw his way from the back of the grid to be part of the leading foursome. At Ostkurve I had slip streamed Fulvio, who had claimed the inside line, and again could not pull in behind him because he was being followed by Bastian. This resulted in my motoring around the outside of Fulvio and emerging onto the straight in the lead! Bastian made the mistake of tucking in behind me but when his Merc was ready to pull out and pass me, hecouldn't because Fulvio was there and what's more, he still had that yellow appendage glued to his rear.
Fulvio passed me and pulled across in front of me but I knew that I had to give him plenty or room to turn his aircraft carrier and had backed off early. Evil and Bastian shot past me on the inside with about a fag-packet between them. (No cigarette advertising intended)
It looked like an accident to me and I was spot-on there as Bastian motored into the back of Evil, putting him on his lid!
I took a wide trip across the grass to avoid the spinning yellow thing and nearly had an accident of my own as I tried to rejoin. The shallow angle that I needed to see what was coming from behind took me back on the grass and I almost lost it trying to regain the tarmac.
It took me a few laps to catch Fulvio and Bastian and I can't for the life of me remember where I passed Fulvio to climb back to second place. Then Bastian made a mistake in the Stadium section and I was able to get past. I didn't realise at the time but Bastian had spun and then reversed onto the track, just catching Fulvio as he tried to slip past.
That gave me the gap that I needed to get away from the Mercs and whilst Bastian obviously had the pace to catch me he also managed to chuck in the occasional slow lap that kept him at bay.
It was a relief to see the chequered flag.
