"When the cat's out, the mice play on the table" - rough translation of a Danish saying
Rang true yesterday, where I made the most of Geoffers' regrettable absense. Had our resident alien been present, there's no doubt things would have looked very different.
Loved the track - fast sweeping curves and elevation changes, and I'm a happy camper
Race 1:Good start, but still jumped by Clive - the traction of that rear engined Imp is no joke
Better acceleration of the Toyota gave me back the lead before the hairpin though. Clive in hot pursuit over the following laps, but then, with a gap of just under 3 secs, his car vanished from my mirror, and the pit board showed a gap of 20 secs. Eased off a little, but next lap, the board showed a 2.6 secs gap, still with no car in my mirror. Wondered if someone had hit escape and jumped straight to the pits, but it was the same the next lap. Had to keep pushing then, just to be sure. Could seemingly also hear another car, but still the mirror was empty. Finally looked behind me, and there was Clive, not far back. Why he disappeared from my mirror, I don't know (you're not a vampire, are you Clive ?
). Had to keep flogging the Toyota for the remainder of the race - any slackening and Clive would close the gap.
Race 2:2nd on grid, but now in Imp, it was my turn to jump the pole sitting Clive
When we reached the hairpin though, I was about to become the meat in a Dan-Clive sandwich
Held my ground and somehow emerged from the hairpin still in 1st. Had Dan in close attendance for a few laps, before he fell back a little. Could see him dicing with Clive in my mirrors; now if the two gents could keep each other busy, while I slipped away..
After a while, Clive got past though. Looks in the replay like Dan waved him through - err Dan, that's not quite what we agreed to over that brown envelope..
Thus another hard chase by Clive for the rest of the race, so had to push hard.
Race 3:Screwed up my one hot lap and had to start at the back of the grid, alongside Dan. This was going to be tricky. As per Geoffers' brilliant suggestion, I start with auto clutch off, and then activate it once under way. With the Imp, it wasn't critical when - upshifts from 1st to 2nd were as smooth with or without auto clutch. The Cortina on the other hand, was like a bucking bronco with auto clutch off - copious amounts of wheelspin during the shift, and threatening with fishtailing out of control, so had to activate it before the shift. Not too soon though, as that would result in wheelspin and ruin the start, but it went through 1st quickly, so difficult to time right. Add to that, that if I got a better start than cars ahead, I would have to try and steer around them while doing this - with one hand on the wheel! Talk about multi tasking..
Did play out exactly like this; I gained a few places ending up 4th, behind Roger. Looked for a way past for a few laps, but we were in similar cars, so I had no clear advantage anywhere, until he overshot at the hairpin. Next Clive spun off at the pit entrance, and I found myself in a familiar place chasing Matt. Not as tough as Monday however; he went off at the hairpin, which closed the gap between us. Next lap he went partially off again, and I partially followed him
Had just a little more momentum and eked out ahead. Kept the lead to the finish with a concentrated drive, scoring an unlikely 3rd win for the evening. Grats to Clive, Tony & Matt for their podiums! Commiserations to Geoffers for not being able to join.
Tony, the lap records shown for the track are all over the place - Race 1, 2 & 3 all show different laptimes - and none of them are correct