Great to see a full grid for this new mod and it looked like everyone had tested the cars and decided that the Brab BT24 was the favoured car. Phil was brave with the BRM and respect to Leo. Doni and a couple of others for opting for the less powerful chassis. They will have that in reserve for other tracks, so maybe a cute move ??
Lap 1 was congested and tight but from where I was sitting everyone appeared to be leaving room for each other ( good to see
) Once the race had settled down I was running in 5th or 6th place and was discovering the limitations of my setup. I could push hard for 1 or 2 laps but then the tyres would creep up in temp and the handling became a little random, so I had to go gently for a lap to recover.
I could see Phil and Ziu behind and Phil did a good job of holding back Ziu for a few laps, but once he was released Ziu started to eat into my lead. I was probably watching Prib more than I should and as a result made a series of small errors that allowed Ziu to close the gap far too quickly.
Once Ziu caught and passed me I half expected him to ease away, but instead I found that I could match his pace. There were a couple of times when I might have pushed to the limit as we braked into T1 and taken the place back, but with so many laps to run I opted for safety. After many laps of close racing Ziu made a mistake and I was just able to squeeze past. By the time Ziu had recovered I had a considerable lead and all I had to do was bring it home to claim 5th.
But in typical old fart fashion I managed to miss braking points, fluff gear changes and generally slow myself down so much that Ziu was able to catch me with 3 laps to go and Phil was getting within striking distance too!!
On the last lap I was preparing for a drag race to the flag, but in trying to squeeze an extra 10kph through the penultimate corner I put a wheel on the grass and that was the end of my challenge, so I cruised over the line in 6th.
Some magic racing with Ziu, finally I feel that the new wheel and pedals are close to where I want them, and my confidence in being able to place the car is coming back.
looking forward to the next round already
