Grats to the podium and all finishers.
Apologies to Francesco and many others who were impeded by my wayward Connaught
I think it all started when I fired up GPL and Igor. Strangely, I had to recalibrate my wheel and pedals, which is very rare.
Qually was OK and Alain took pole position, but although I was running quali on race fuel the car did not feel quite as comfortable as it normally does.
I had a great start and took the lead into Tarzan, gradually easing away.
But on lap 2 everything went weird at Hugenholtz
The steering wheel suddenly appeared to be disconnected from the front wheels and the accelerator felt like an on/off switch. Big apologies to the cars that had to avoid a wildly swerving car in the middle of the track!! I was doing all that I could to hold it straight
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The worst was yet to come...I struggled to understand the steering and gas for the rest of the lap which did not require the use of the brakes, so it was not until I approached Tarzan now following Alain, that I discovered that the brake pedal was also an ON/OFF switch and with the wheels locked I was going to take Alain and possibly Tago into the sand dunes with me!! I aborted to the outside and just avoided Alain's Vanwall.
No damage to my car but a few more places lost
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A lap or maybe 2 following Francesco until we reached Tarzan again.
My normal braking marker was the beginning of the black rubber marks and I could usually comfortably negotiate Tarzan. This time I applied the brakes much earlier at the end of the pit lane, just in case there was a problem, and Francesco's car opened the gap as he braked later. But then I realised that he was slowing down...but I was NOT!! This time I had to swing my car to the inside to avoid Fran's car and bounced over the kerb and up into the fencing and ended my race.
Probably that was a good thing as my steering/car/pedals were definitely screwed and further problems were likely. It looks like my wheel and pedals lost calibration during the race??, so I will need to investigate that before the next race
Again, apologies to anyone who suffered.