That was a long ( mostly ) lonely race.
First of all apologies to the fast cars that totally surprised me by appearing from hyperspace right behind me. OK, so maybe I was half asleep
I was considering the BMW for this race, and although I was able to get a 3:50 lap on full tanks which would have been competitive, the setup did not like the kerbs. The slightest contact with a kerb totally screwed the handling sending me off into the scenery. In a sprint race I might have been able to sustain the concentration to stay off the kerbs, but over 2 hrs
? I doubted it
. Plus the BMW simply ran out of revs far too soon, even with the highest ratios and in the few laps that I tried I was losing 2-3% health on each lap. I chickened out and went for the Escort BDB.
I had not tried the Alfa so did not realise how much quicker that car was. The Escort was rock solid in the handling and just did not use up tyres and with the high ratios that I opted for, I was hoping for a single stop and no tyres. I was pretty sure that the bigger cars would lap me and reduce my lap count by at least 1,
But.... Kurt shot off the grid in his Alpha and was pulling away steadily
. In an attempt to find some extra pace I tried some different lines and gears through corners and only succeeded in generating 2 spins and more lost time. When Kurt went for the pits 1 lap before my planned stop, there was a chink of hope...... We had been racing for an hour and I had gained 1 lap on my fuel? maybe he would need a splash and dash at the end?
All that I could do was push as hard as I dared but watch the fuel consumption. The big question for me was "Americana" who was showing as DQ yet clearly still racing, but HUD was not giving me a time gap to him...was he close or far???
That all changed when the 33 sec lead that Kurt had built up suddenly started reducing rapidly. When I caught him he was not travelling all that slowly so I waited and watched for a while ( we still had 45mins of racing, so no rush). He appeared to be struggling on left hand corners?
I reasoned that I could not outdrag him on the straights unless I could get clear of the slipstream, so I waited until he ran wide and went grass cutting before nailing the gas and making the pass.
It was clear that he was struggling as I steadily pulled away and cruised to the 2hr finish. Once Kurt was behind me I could see that Americana was behind him, so I knew that he was not a threat.
With all races such as this it would have been nicer to have more cars on track and more action for everyone, but we can only drive the races that are put before us.
Thanks to Nappe for organising, always good to have these challenges
