Best wishes to everyone around the world as we all try and stay safe and healthy. Take care all of you.
It seems that the GPL gods are being very good to me in this series, or maybe it is just that I seem to get ALL my luck in the 55's and no luck in the other mods??
Welcome to Josefine for her 1st 1955 race with us.
Grats to all finishers on a track that was not quite as simple as it looked. All of the corners were quite long and it was tricky to carry any pace through them and there was always the temptation to enter the corners too quickly. Too much drifting would over heat the rear tyres so that the next corner was difficult. So for me, it was a circuit where I had to concentrate and be very sure of my braking points or my NOT braking points.
Usually I don't get concerned about GPL races and simply enjoy joining the server and having the fun of racing against you all. But for some reason this 55 Season has got under my skin, and especially the battle with Clive Loynes. The difference in pace between us is fractional and I have been lucky to come out on top thus far in the season...….but the differences are so small that things could easily change around. Normally I do zero offline practice for races, other than a quick 10 minutes checking that I have the correct track file and a test on the server.
Being confined at home by the virus, has perhaps made me look for some fun, and I confess that did about an hour practicing for this race. I don't like simply doing laps and prefer to enjoy racing against other drivers, so an hour was as much as I could suffer.
At first I was going to use my favourite Connaught and was quite happy with a 1:18.3 after 10 mins, but then I began thinking about Clive Loynes ( that man is getting into my head!! lol) and convinced myself that he would be faster than that!!! lol. So I tried the Vanwall and got that down to 1:17.9 as a PB. Still worried about the Loynes factor I tried the 250F Maserati. As expected this quicker and 1:17.5's were easy(ish).
Joined the server and started running laps on race fuel that took were quick enough to get pole, until Clive joined the battle in another Maserati and immediately posted a very quick time!! I was right to be worried!!
I worked my times down to be close to Clive but, with full fuel on board, I could not regain pole position and I had to dump 50% of the fuel and go for a banzai lap. Each time I tried I caught another car trying to get their own fast lap and had to back off. At one stage I thought that Clive was going to have pole position, but I finally found a clear lap and took pole by0.07 secs.....sorry Clive, that must have been so frustrating
With a staggered grid I was able to hold the lead down to T1 and for the first laps until I was looking for Clive in my mirrors and ran fractionally too far into T1. An excursion onto the grass allowed Clive past ( I swear that I could hear him laughing as he went past!!) Farina also passed me and I was back to 3rd!!
I had to wait for a lap to get my brake temps under control before I could start to challenge Farina. Once I had passed Farina's Connaught I had to hunt down Clive and it was clear from his pace that he was not going to roll over and give me back the lead. It took a while to slowly close the gap by pushing hard for one lap and then follow that with a steady lap to let the brakes cool. After what seemed like an age I got close to Clive and was starting to work out where I could pass him.......so I did and promptly ran wide!!! He was laughing again I swear it!!
I had to chase him again and look for a possible opening.
Then there was the unfortunate incident with Bastian. I could see the incident developing and was hoping that they would keep apart, but there was a tangle and Clive was spun around. I did not want to take the place under those circumstances as I was enjoying the battle, so I waited for Clive to get going again and fell in behind him.
The only places that I was faster than Clive were around those final 2 turns, but without an error from him there was not an alternative line that would allow me to try and pass, or T1 which was possible if I could max out the brakes. To do it I had to NOT brake for anything after the "S" bends so that I had 100% available when we got to T1. One practice run where I watched where Clive applied his brakes and the next lap I went for it and I think I took it to the absolute limit, just holding the car into the apex.
Once I had the lead I concentrated on getting into each corner and slowly building a gap. I suspect that Clive had a couple of "moments" because the gap became very comfortable and I was able to relax.
I did push just a little on the last lap and was chuffed to get into the 1:16's. That was something that PRIB had been promising was possible for a long time!!
Just to cheer Clive up a little. I usually like to have a couple of gallons of fuel spare at the end of a race and I thought I had calculated the same for this race. I did not look at the fuel until I crossed the finish line and was a little shocked to see 0.4 galls.....not enough for even 1 more lap!!!??
